Dear Friends,
I have just bought an apartment in a complex that will be maintained by the developer till formation of a Co-op Society/Owner's Association. The developer has collected the first year's maintenance fund and also charged Service Tax on the entire amount at 12.36%. KIndly educate me on following:-
1. Although the agreement of sale stated that maintenence amount is to be paid monthly, they were unwilling to hand over possession (all other payments made) unless I paid up maintenance upfront for one year. My concern is that there is no transparency to the residents on utilisation of the funds by the developer. What legal recourse do I have now?
2. The amount paid towards maintenance works out to less than Rs 3000/- p.m in my case and is service tax applicable on this entire amount? My concern is that since much of this money will be spent in buying mantenance related material (say replacement bulbs for common lighting for which VAT is charged) and service tax being applicable when the developer pays service charges to the agencies providing housekeeping/security (double taxation???) etc, I feel that levy of service tax is not fair, unless applied only on any amount of service fee charged by the developer/nominated agency that is providing a service by running our maintenance. Similarily, once the Co-op Society or Association if formed, do we have to pay service tax on amounts collected by us for maintenance of our own buildings (akin to an independent house owner having to pay service tax if he spends money to whitewash his walls).
3. Also, the builder has not provided any specific invoices and quoted his Service Tax registration number on any of the documents.
Best Regards & Thank You
