Noida: Apartment owners associations oppose GST over maintenance charges

Noida apartment owners oppose an 18% GST on maintenance and electricity charges, claiming it's unjustified for non-profit activities.

NOIDA: The apartment owners associations (AOAs) are opposing the Uttar Pradesh tax department’s move to impose 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) over maintenance or electricity charges paid by the apartment owners in Noida’s housing societies.

The UP tax department teams are also visiting the society complexes for the last 3 months, and auditing records to ascertain if the AOAs have made profit or charged additional amount against the government rate of the electricity supply. (HT Archive)

While the government terms imposition of GST as lawful, the AOAs have objected to the tax arguing that the maintenance or electricity charges collection is not a commercial activity to invite such tax.

The tax department has served notices to 25 housing societies including sector 45 based Prateek Stylome housing complex, Antriksh society in Sector 78 and Prateek Wisteria in Sector 77 among others, asking AOA office-bearers to be present personally and also furnish the records since 2019-20.

“The GST rule is if you take power supply from the government, and further supply with profit then one is to pay 18 per cent GST. But if you don’t do it for profit, the GST is unjustified. The government allows the AOAs to raise .5 percent cost per unit of electricity to recover the line loss. Tax officials consider .5 percent additional amount as profit and want us to pay ₹50 lakh GST. It is a huge burden,” said an AOA member of Antriksh society, urging anonymity.

The UP tax department teams are also visiting the society complexes for the last 3 months, and auditing records to ascertain if the AOAs have made profit or charged additional amount against the government rate of the electricity supply.

The AOAs have also sought help of MP Dr Mahesh Sharma and Noida MLA Pankaj Singh in the matter. Tax officials were unavailable for a comment.