bengaluru the real estate sector in karnataka which has gone through a prolonged slowdown worsened by demonetization gst and rera real estate regulation act over the past year is hoping for some tax relief from the upcoming union and state budgets lowering of the gst rate from the current 12 to 68 and bringing stamp duty under the ambit of gst top the list of their expectationspregst the service tax in karnataka was around 45 and vat 1 resulting in a total tax outgo of 55 gst took the tax to 12 and with stamp duty and registration charges the total outgo for a buyer is now 18 the stamp duty and registration charges on property must be reduced or be merged with gst said farook mahmood world president federation internationale des administrateurs de bienconselis immobiliers fiabci the international real estate federationbuilders would also like the government to grant industry status to the sector in line with the housingforall scheme the centre in its last budget gave industry status for affordable housing which boosted the sentiments of both buyers and developers but we feel its the right time for the entire sector to be recognized as an infrastructure provider and be granted industry status said k p pradeep cfo brigade enterprisesmahmood said the government should introduce a singlewindow clearance mechanism for approvals across departments they should introduce timelines for getting such singlewindow clearance and bring the concept of deemed approval if there is no revert within the fixed timeline he said the clearance and approval process for residential real estate projects has been an impediment for a long time particularly in bengaluruashish r puravankara president credai bengaluru said the government should offer income tax sops to boost sluggish demand and come out with some robust longterm strategy for the affordable housing segment lowering the costs for land acquisition and making abatement on land 50 from the current 33 will go a long way in reviving the sector said adarsh narahari secretary credaiquotestates will not agree easily to merge stamp duty with gst as they will lose a source of income right now only excise on liquor and stamp duty are in the states hands if these are also given up then states lose their right to change the rates also over the years stamp duty has been brought down substantiallyi s n prasad additional chief secretary finance department karnataka