India, Nov. 28 -- The Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (MREAT), while directing a developer to refund more than Rs.2 crore to a homebuyer for delayed possession, held that buyers cannot seek a refund of GST, stamp duty, registration fees, TDS, MVAT, or similar government levies from developers.

The tribunal noted that these charges are not retained by developers but are remitted directly to government departments. Therefore, the homebuyer must apply to the respective authorities to obtain any refund of such statutory taxes.

A homebuyer booked a roughly 1,000 sq ft apartment in Mumbai's western suburbs for over Rs.2 crore in January 2017. As per the agreement, the developer was required to hand over possession by December 2019,...