To provide relief to developers in Haryana and particularly, Gurgaon, the state government has decided to extended the VAT deposit deadline to June 30, 2017. Apart from that, a 2% rebate was also announced for dealers, including developers, who deposit the entire pending amount within the new deadline.

Finance minister Captain Abhimanyu, while speaking at the Invest Haryana Summit organized by NAREDCO, announced that the developers who have not made the payment could avail of the Alternate VAT Compliance Scheme till June 30 this year.

“The developers who make the payment by June 30 and pay 1.05% of all the yearly receipts would be entitled to avail of the rebate scheme. Others, who did not derive the benefits of the scheme earlier can also do so by the extended deadline,” the finance minister said.

It was also made clear that developers can charge only that amount as VAT from homebuyers as is being demanded by the state government as tax and cannot demand more money. Over 100 developers have already taken advantage of the scheme and the state exchequer has managed to get over ?730 crore from the real estate industry as tax.

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Another reason why this scheme has been extended is that since Goods and Service Tax will become operational in Haryana from July 1, any money which is paid as VAT would be transferred to the Centre’s kitty and the state government is likely to get only 50% of that amount. It is because of this reason that the government is trying to settle several legal cases pertaining to VAT out of court.

Rebates, remission of interest and several other sops are being offered to firms and companies that have to pay substantial amount of VAT and other taxes. A senior official revealed that it is likely that state is likely to get around ?2000 to ?2500 crore from IOC refinery in Panipat as part of the out of the court settlement.