For almost a year now state GST officials have been issuing notices to the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation asking them to recover 18% GST from the buyer who bought a plot from these civic bodies last year.
For a lease deed for 99 years or a sale deed, the buyers will have to pay GST on such deals to the civic bodies. The same condition will apply to the AMC. SGST officials have argued that GST is charged because a premium is charged from the leaseholder by the AMC or AUDA.
The insistence on 18% GST will have a drastic impact on AMC and AUDA’s prevailing policies of entering into long-term lease agreements with the organization. As per AMC officials the SGST notices will only force the local bodies to enter into sale agreement than lease agreements.
Over the past three years, AUDA has announced the sale of six plots in the Western part of the city but only three plots were leased out for a 99-year period for Rs 163 crore owing to the Covid-induced slowdown in the real estate sector.
AMC, and AUDA leased plots for a total of Rs 240 crores over three years. In July 2021, AMC auctioned a plot of 3,469 sq m to a major realtor for Rs 77.04 crore while another measuring 8, 060 sq m of land was put for auction for Rs 151.76 crore but later withheld.
