Now, Kolkata property owners to assess their own tax

In a first for the civic body, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Tuesday announced the introduction of Unit Area Assessment System (UAA) from April 1. This welcome step was taken to enable property owners to assess municipal taxes on their own and also help reduce graft.

Earlier, the Left Front had prepared the UAA system but was unable to implement it fearing a backlash from property owners. After becoming the Mayor for the second time in 2015, Chatterjee assured the masses that he would soon implement the UAA system.

"The system will take few months to roll into action but till then the owners can pay their taxes under the old system. The system also has the facility of online payment. Also, the KMC help desks will be assisting the property owners in filling up the forms," said Chatterjee.

It is the first time for KMC when the property tax will be assessed on basis of fixed parameters including the width of the road, its distance from the market, bus stop, metro station etc. Till now, the property tax was calculated arbitrarily by civic authorities, which had led to massive corruption.

In KMC, the general re-evaluation is conducted once in five years. Usually, there is a 10per cent hike once every five years. Revenue department inspectors used to pay official visits to the properties to gauge the quantum of tax. The owners were asked to meet the hearing officers who based on the report submitted by the inspectors fixed the tax. Usually, the owners remained unhappy over the tax rates fixed by the officers and often filed petitions in the Municipal Assessment Tribunal. More than one lakh cases are still pending in the tribunal.

During Subrata Mukherjee's mayoral tenure, Asian Development Bank (ADB) used to provide loans to upgrade the water supply system. ADB had suggested streamlining of the revenue system. Following this, a KMC team comprising senior officials of Revenue department went to Bangalore Municipal Corporation and also other places to study the Unit Area Assessment system.

Later, a committee was set up by the then municipal commissioner Alapan Bandopadhyay as its chairman. The committee submitted a draft proposal which was discussed in the KMC. The civic authorities held meetings with property owners and also considered their suggestions which were later incorporated before publication of the final system. Also, a meeting was held at Town Hall where the MLAs and councillors were informed about the new method of calculating property tax. Chatterjee was successful in convincing chief minister Mamata Banerjee that the new system would be beneficial to ordinary citizens.

According to senior officials, the new system was likely to augment KMC coffers. It was recorded that the ceremonial houses and shops in malls often paid less tax by submitting cooked up rent bills. Also, the residents of Behala, Garden Reach, and Jadavpur were still paying less tax due to the intervention of CPIM which disallowed KMC officials to calculate their taxes after these three main areas came under KMC in 1985.

Kamal Basu, the first mayor of KMC, along with the mayor in council system in 1985 had intended to streamline property tax system but was unable to conduct it because of CPIM. Now, his favourite Chatterjee created history by introducing a proper method of calculating property tax in Kolkata.