Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has been able to reduce the number of pending cases of mutation while also issued a warning that assessees who have not yet availed the scope of waiver scheme and remain defaulters in paying outstanding property taxes will face strong action such as rent attachment, property seizure and auction for sale of property.
In the last few weeks, Mayor Firhad Hakim has received calls during the ‘Talk to Mayor’ session with citizens requesting him to arrange for mutation of their properties which is pending for years. The Mayor assured speedy solutions, including arranging for camps at housing complexes to get it done.
As per data shared by the KMC, the civic body has managed to bring down the number of pending mutation cases to 721 from 3,453. Several pending cases are also in line for approval. An official said reduction in numbers were mainly possible due to the ‘Duare Poura Pariseva’ initiative where camps were held in KMC wards for mutation and self assessment-related issues were taken care of by the assessment collection department, and with the help of local councilors.
As for property tax collection, in 2022-23, the KMC collected Rs 975 crore till January 31, 2023 compared to Rs 890 crore in 2021-22. The KMC has also shared that in the property tax waiver scheme which it floated in 2020, a reasonable amount of outstanding dues, Rs 535 crore approximately, has been collected by the assessment department.
The civic body, however, has warned that assessees who have not yet availed the scope of the waiver scheme and remain defaulters in paying their outstanding dues of property tax, strong action like rent attachment, property seizure and auction for sale of property will be taken against them. Also, the number of registered assessees last year was 8.47 lakh which has now increased to Rs 9.14 lakh in this financial year (upto January 31, 2023).
This has happened mainly due to the policies taken for assessment of the un-assessed properties and arrangements for collection of property tax from them.