Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has endorsed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's "push" for bringing the real-estate sector under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Nitish said Bihar was among the first states to have raised this demand at a GST Council meeting. "We have always supported the GST and other measures that targeted black money holders. In fact, Bihar was among the first states to have raised such a demand," Kumar, flanked by deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, told reporters on the sidelines of his weekly "Lok Samvad" on Monday. Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar's finance minister, is a member of a technical committee on the GST.
Jaitley, while delivering the "Annual Mahindra Lecture" on India's tax reform at the Harvard University, said that the real estate was one sector that has witnessed maximum tax evasion and cash generation. "The one sector in India where the maximum amount of tax evasion and cash generation takes place is real estate which is still outside the GST. Some of the states have been pressing for it. I personally believe that there is a strong case to bring real estate into the GST," said the FM.
The matter is scheduled to be taken up in the GST council's meeting in Guwahati next month. As per the central government's data, the Indian real estate market is set to touch $180 billion by 2020.