Mumbai, February 24: Hearing a petition filed by the apex body of real estate developers, the Bombay High Court has allowed the builders to deposit service tax collected from buyers of under construction structures directly in the court instead of putting the same in an escrow account.
The service tax thus deposited in the High Court would be refunded to the members of Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI) along with accrued interest thereon if the decision goes in favour of the builders who have challenged the levy of service tax imposed by the Union Government.
Justices J P Devdhar and Mridula Bhatkar on February 18, modified the High Court’s earlier ruling by asking the developers to deposit the service tax in the court.
Earlier, the Court had asked developers to give an undertaking that they would deposit service tax collected from the buyers in an escrow account.
-Agencies