The income-tax provisions stipulate that the service tax has to be passed on to the consumers. Therefore, the financial burden of the tax has to be borne by the consumers who take consultations while the professionals will have to bear the burden of doing the paper work of filing the tax returns with the excise department.

According to tax expert Anil Harish: "There is a chance of double taxation."Citing an example, he supposes the first broker gets Rs 1 lakh as consultancy charges and about 5 per cent on the 2 per cent of brokerage is taxed. From the Rs 1 lakh, if Rs 50,000 is shared with the second partner, then the second partner will also have to pay another 5 per cent on the 2 per cent brokerge received, even though his partner has already paid the service tax at theonset.

Aashish Velkar of Cushman & Wakefield said: "I wonder if we can pass it on to the consumers and as part of the business we may have to opt for the choice of absorbing the 5 per cent service tax imposed on the 2 per cent deducted as brokerage from the clients. Another confusing criterion about imposing service tax in an unorganised sector like real estate is a difficult one and the more tax the government imposes, more ways people will think of avoiding it. We are still assessing the various implications of the tax.''

A large number of real estate brokers are crying hoarse about imposition of service tax and the Estate Agents Association of India is planning to arrange a representation to finance minister Yashwant Sinha, saying that the service tax is largely unwarranted and be postponed to some other time considering the sluggish situation of the realty market.

However, M Balachandran of Goldstar properties, who appears be one of the few voices applauding the service tax, said: "Bringing theservice sector into the tax bracket is a positive move as fly-by-night operators will vanish. When the manufacturing industry is filing excise duties, octroi, sales taxes, the services, which is a fast-growing industry, is being left scot free from the ambit of taxes."

Realty experts said that for the common man, the effect of having to pay an additional service tax is minuscule.

And in the Indian economy, where the service sector is getting increasingly dominant, it's time that this sector too is taxed.

Balachandran said: ``The effect on the public would as follows: I has bought a property for Rs 1 crore. "Therefore, the brokerage will be about Rs 2 lakh (which is 2 per cent of the total amount). The 5 per cent service tax would be on this brokerage of Rs 2 lakh, and therefore amount to Rs 10,000, which is not enormous."