Flat, apartment maintenance to cost more under GST

Mumbai: From July 1, flat and apartment owners who pay or spend more than Rs 5,000 towards maintenance of their houses will have to shell out more as the Goods and Services Tax will slap on them an additional 2.5 per cent tax.

Under the tweaked rules, maintenance does not include monthly or annual household spending like property tax, stamp duty, and electricity and water charges, according to a report in The Economic Times.

"Under the GST, existing rate of 15.55 per cent on maintenance charges will be replaced by 18 per cent," the ET report said that further elaborated new rate was applicable to an annual corpus or balance of more than Rs 20 lakh of a housing society.

This also excludes property tax, stamp duty, and electricity and water charges, and also maintenance charges gathered from apartment owners, according to the report.

Apart from this extra tax burden, there also is some respite in the form of tax refunds. Tax on construction material purchased for renovation, maintenance of house, flats or housing societies will be refunded the input tax credit method.