KMC looks into acquisition of ownerless buildings

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will take the opinion of legal experts on acquisition of buildings where there are no recorded owners and the property tax arrears have reached astronomical figures.

The house tax arrears in KMC have reached a staggering amount of Rs 4,700 crore, said Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, who looks after the Assessment department, on Tuesday.

There are many old and dilapidated buildings where the civic authorities have failed to track the owners. KMC had sent notices requesting the owners to meet senior officials of the Assessment department. But none of the owners or their representatives had turned up at the KMC office.

Most of these buildings are occupied either by sub-tenants or forcible occupants. Some have been locked up for several years. Most of these buildings are situated in Boroughs 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.

On the bank of river Hooghly, there are many such buildings both in North and South Kolkata. Some of these houses were given to their mistresses by the zamindars over a century ago and now, it has become impossible to track the owners. Most of these buildings are occupied by people who do not pay KMC tax.

Ghosh said the state government has given KMC the power to waive 50% of the tax arrears and 99% of the interest. It may be mentioned that during the mayorship of Subrata Mukherjee and Sovan Chatterjee, the state government had allowed KMC to introduce a waiver scheme, where the interest and penalty were waived and the owners could pay only the house tax arrears.

He said the councillors will be involved to collect the property tax arrears. They will go to the houses and request the owners to clear the dues at the earliest. If required, Ghosh himself will accompany them.

"It is a major issue and we are making plans on how to address the problem. There are buildings where the tax arrears have gone up to several crores," he maintained.

Once the blueprint is ready, Assessment department officials will start conducting drives to collect property tax arrears.