Affordable housing GST benefit depends on project-wide FAR/FSI compliance, not separate phase treatment.
Concessional GST for affordable housing under the relevant notification was available only where the housing project, viewed as a whole, satisfied the prescribed infrastructure-status condition of using at least 50% of FAR/FSI for dwelling units up to 60 square metres carpet area. Part-B of Sector-4 could not be treated as an independent project because it shared common land, entrance, facilities and permissions with Part-A, and was sold as one composite project with undivided interests. Separate RERA registration did not control the GST notification. The 50% FAR/FSI test therefore had to be applied to the entire Sector-4 project, and the concessional rate was held unavailable.
Issues: Whether the benefit of reduced GST rate under Entry No. 3(v)(da) of Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), as amended, was available for houses of up to 60 square metres carpet area in Part-B of Sector-4, and whether Part-B could be treated as a separate affordable housing project for computing the 50% FAR/FSI condition.
Analysis: The applicable entry grants concessional tax to low-cost houses of up to 60 square metres in an affordable housing project that has been given infrastructure status, and the infrastructure-status notification requires use of at least 50% of FAR/FSI for dwelling units of not more than 60 square metres carpet area. The expression housing project was understood in its generic sense as a project having common land, common entrance and common facilities. On the facts, Part-A and Part-B were covered by common permission, shared common land, common facilities and common entrance, and were sold as one composite project with undivided share in the whole sector. The reliance on separate RERA registration was not accepted for determining the GST notification, because the GST entry was to be applied on the basis of the overall housing project and not by isolating one phase having common infrastructure with the rest of the township.
Conclusion: Part-B could not be treated as an independent standalone housing project for the purpose of the concessional entry, and the 50% FAR/FSI condition had to be tested with reference to the entire Sector-4 project. As that condition was not satisfied for the composite project, the concessional rate was not available.
Final Conclusion: The ruling denies concessional GST treatment for the claimed project phase and confirms that the benefit is confined to projects that satisfy the affordable-housing threshold on a project-wide basis.
Ratio Decidendi: A concessional rate for affordable housing applies only where the relevant housing project, viewed as a whole, satisfies the prescribed FAR/FSI threshold and cannot be fragmented into a phase with common land and common facilities to claim the benefit separately.
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