Post-GST housing pricing and Input Tax Credit found to create no anti-profiteering liability in the project.

A housing project undertaken wholly in the post-GST period did not attract an anti-profiteering liability where the unit was booked, allotted, contracted, constructed, and paid for entirely under the GST regime. Because the pricing was fixed after accounting for the then-applicable tax structure, no separate pre-GST comparison was required to identify a transferable Input Tax Credit benefit. The reported credit-to-purchase-value ratio also showed no incremental benefit passing to the buyer. On those facts, the anti-profiteering allegation failed and the preliminary objections based on post-GST applicability were accepted.

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Issues: Whether the respondent had contravened the anti-profiteering mandate by failing to pass on the benefit of Input Tax Credit to the complainants in a project undertaken wholly in the post-GST period, and whether the preliminary objections based on the applicability of the post-GST construction and pricing structure were sustainable.

Analysis: The unit was booked, allotted, contracted for, constructed, and paid for entirely during the GST regime. On those facts, the situation fell within the principle that where construction and supply take place wholly post-GST and the price is fixed after factoring the then-applicable tax structure, no separate pre-GST comparison yields a transferable ITC benefit. The ratio of credit availed to purchase value also showed no incremental benefit to the respondent, as the comparative percentage declined from the pre-GST period to the post-GST period. Accordingly, the anti-profiteering allegation was not made out and the respondent's preliminary objections succeeded.

Conclusion: The respondent was not held to have contravened the anti-profiteering provision, and the complainants' challenge to the DGAP report failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a housing project is undertaken entirely in the post-GST period and the pricing is fixed in that regime after accounting for the applicable tax structure, no liability to pass on an alleged pre-GST Input Tax Credit benefit arises under the anti-profiteering provision.

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