Phased residential project under GST: separate RERA-registered towers qualify independently for the ongoing-project concessional rate.

For GST rate purposes under Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), as amended, a phased residential development separately registered under RERA must be treated as distinct projects. The Authority held that the ongoing-project concession and related old rate with input tax credit apply only where each individual project independently satisfies the notification's conditions. On the facts, only towers A, B and C met the booking, commencement, and earthwork requirements by 31 March 2019, so the concessional option was confined to those towers and was unavailable for the remaining towers.

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Issues: Whether all ten towers of the residential project constituted a single ongoing project so as to permit the applicant to avail the old GST rate of 12% with input tax credit for all residential apartments.

Analysis: The applicable rate under Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), as amended, depended on whether the construction related to an ongoing project and whether the promoter had exercised the prescribed option. The Authority held that the expression "project" under the notification had to be understood in the context of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Since different towers were separately registered in phases under RERA, each phase was to be treated as a distinct project for GST purposes. On the facts, only towers A, B and C satisfied the requirements of an ongoing project, whereas the remaining towers did not satisfy the booking, commencement, and earthwork conditions by 31 March 2019.

Conclusion: The applicant was not entitled to apply the 12% with input tax credit option across all ten towers; the concessional old-rate option was confined only to towers A, B and C.

Final Conclusion: The ruling restricts the benefit of the old GST rate with input tax credit to the towers that independently satisfied the ongoing-project criteria, and denies the claim for the remaining towers.

Ratio Decidendi: For a residential project developed in phases, each phase separately registered under RERA is to be treated as a distinct project for GST rate purposes, and the ongoing-project benefit applies only to the individual project that independently satisfies the notification's conditions.

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