Online petition against GST on hsg societies gains support

Housing society members claim that they are consumers and not service providers.

Pune: According to the newly-implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) will be required to pay 18 per cent GST on monthly subscription charged from its members if such payment is more than Rs 5,000 per member and the annual turnover of RWA by way of supplying of services and goods is also more than Rs 20 lakh. 

However, Umesh Malasane, a resident of Regency Cosmos in Baner, launched an online petition demanding that the authorities exempt them from 18 per cent GST as it leads to double taxation. 

Over 3,000 society members from 22 RAWs from Pune have signed this petition online and according to them, they are not the right entity to levy GST. 

Sudhir Deshmukh, a member of Co-operative Housing Society of Pimpri-Chinchwad Federation, said, “I support the petition as we are the consumer and not the service provider. We are not any profit-making organisation. We collect money from our members for a common cause and not for any business purpose.” 

The societies are questioning that if the resident members of the co-operative housing societies are already paying all the taxes, then why GST is levied? 

Malasane, who filed an online petition, said, “If GST is applied on the co-operative housing society, is government going to take the responsibility of maintaining it in future. The co-operative housing societies are maintained by the members of that society. So, if I am, as a resident, providing a service to myself, then why should I pay GST on it to the government?” 
Paying Goods and Services Tax has become a burden for all the society members. And no one is volunteering to file GST as it has to be filed thrice in a month. 

Yuvraj Pawar, Pune President of Maharashtra Society Welfare Association, said, “In any housing society, all the members need not be of the same economic background to pay extra money after paying taxes and other expenses of the society. So it is not liable for the societies to pay the extra GST applied on them.”

Over 3,000 society members from 22 Resident Welfare Associations from Pune have signed this petition online and according to them, they are not the right entity to levy GST. The societies are questioning that if the resident members of the co-operative housing societies are already paying all the taxes, then why GST is levied?