Says Ravindra Sudhalkar, ED & CEO, Reliance Home Finance, “The GST Council’s decision to give builders the option of choosing the tax rate — 12% with input tax credit facility or 5% without it, and in the case of affordable housing projects, 8% with tax rebates or 1% without it – will give developers a sigh of relief, albeit temporarily. Many developers were anxious following the government’s decision to bring in new GST rates minus ITC as they were concerned over the input stock which they have accumulated much before as part of their long-term purchases. The transition phase offered by the government would be useful for them. The government’s decision to lower GST rates was taken keeping in mind the fact that benefits of ITC were not being passed on to consumers by the builders. Today’s decision is also aligned with consumer interest as the implementation of new tax rates is only few days away and inevitable. Home buyers will directly benefit from the new GST rates as they won’t have to deal with uncertainties surrounding ITC. Additionally, they won’t have to worry about builders hiking prices under the new rates in the immediate future given that the real estate sector is laden with challenges.”