pune the state governments refusal on wednesday to change its position on the 5 valueadded tax vat on residential real estate pushed the realty developer community across the state in a frenzy to finalise the amount due from them and to remit it online to the sales tax department on tuesday the bombay high court dismissed a petition by developers bodies challenging the states decision to charge 5 vat on dwellings sold between june 2006 and march 2010 following this the accounting staff in the offices of developers and builders got busy working out the amount of vat payable for each housing unit falling in the ambit of the governments decision the developer community had pinned their hopes on the state cabinets weekly meeting on wednesday in which the issue of modifying the decision about vat and bringing it to 1 for all properties under construction during the june 2006march 2010 period was to come up for discussion by late wednesday afternoon however it became clear that the cabinet had decided to leave the position unchanged satish magar president of the confederation of real estate developers associations of india pune metro told toi that developers across the state started finalising their vat liability and remitting it online soon thereafter the supreme courts order had said developers had time till october 31 to remit vat dues and we have to follow the order magar said he added that it was also understandable that the state government left the issue unchanged as there had been consistent media coverage on the issue during the last few months the pressure on the online tax remittance system of the sales tax department delayed payment uploads and the department had to open help desks to assist developers magar said he said credai members had already started sending notices to their customers about the recoverable vat amount and would continue to follow up the recovery there may be some customers who wont pay or will start disputes but they will have to ultimately pay up he said atul goel director of goel ganga developers said his entire staff was busy with the vat compliance work we have 3500 cases which fall in the time span defined by the state government for the 5 vat rule and it will be a major cash crunch as recovery from customers would be delayed goel said but he confirmed that all the money due from the company would be remitted by midnight local sales tax authorities could not be reached on phone for their comments meanwhile consumer protection organisations have issued a statement appealing customers not to pay vat even if they receive notices from builders the builders will chase them but customers should stay firm and not pay vat if any builders file court cases for recovery of the tax we will offer legal help sooryakant pathak executive president of the akhil bharatiya grahak panchayat said in the statement a mumbaibased senior sales tax official said on condition of anonymity