Real Game-Changer?

The introduction of GST will have a cascading effect on the real estate sector due to the positive symbiotic relationship it shares with more than 250 sectors such as cement, steel, IT, BFSI, etc

- Anuj Puri

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is the most radical taxation reform that is set to alter India’s economic prospects. A single indirect tax, encompassing all goods and services, is surely a welcome change. GST is built into the value added structure that would eliminate the cascading effect of taxes and is expected to boost tax collection by making compliance easy for retailers and other businesses as also reduce overall taxation levels. The results, however, will be evident only two-three years after GST gets implemented.

The existing, top warehousing hubs are: Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. These eight city hubs put together had a cumulative supply of organised Grade-A and Grade-B warehousing space of around 97 mn sq ft in 2015 and this is expected to grow to around 116 mn sq ft by the end of 2016. Moreover, GST will result in emergence of new hubs: Belgaum, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Goa, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Lucknow/ Kanpur, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Vapi and Vijayawada.

Though GST will give a big push to the manufacturing, warehousing and logistics sectors in India, there are implications beyond these sectors too. The retail industry and residential property buyers stand to gain in particular.

Benefits of GST to different sectors