Real estate players are planning to absorb the post-GST additional tax burden of five to six per cent post to prevent further slump in sales as demonetisation hangover continues in the sector. “We had talked to several builders and all of them are trying hard to absorb the additional tax burden of five to six per cent due to GST,” Knight Frank chief economist and national director Samantak Das said.
“Already sales volume on a national level of the first half of 2017 (Jan-June 17') is down by 11 per cent and in Kolkata it is down by 22 per cent. If additional tax burden is passed on, then sales will further dip,” he said. GST on real estate is 12 per cent and in the pre-GST period, taxation was about six to seven per cent. New launches of properties have crashed 41 per cent, lowest in the last seven years of the first half average in top 8 cities of the country, Das said.