Kolkata: With less than two months left in the 2025–26 financial year, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim has directed the Municipal Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to deal with pending property tax cases on a case-by-case basis and maximise recovery.
Hakim chaired a meeting with officials of the Assessment and Property Tax Department in the presence of Municipal Commissioner Sumit Gupta, where he said tax collection, though higher than last year so far, must be stepped up to meet rising civic costs. He asked officials to individually contact defaulters and resolve pending cases.
The Mayor instructed the Assessment Department to take a more proactive role. Officials cited manpower shortages, to which Hakim responded that additional manpower would be engaged. He expressed confidence that clearing pending cases would help collections exceed last year’s figures. Sources said the issue of unassessed properties in the added areas of Behala, Tollygunge, Jadavpur and Joka also came up for discussion.
A proposal to erect plaques on assessed properties was placed at the meeting to help identify assessed and unassessed holdings. Officials flagged cases where property owners have not paid taxes for long periods, citing non-payment of rent by tenants. Hakim directed officials to examine making tenants the “person liable” in such cases and recover pending dues from them, particularly where illegal construction is involved.
KMC’s property tax collection rose by over 3.22 per cent up to the third quarter of 2025–26 compared to the corresponding period of 2024–25. Total collection stood at Rs 1,042.17 crore between April 2025 and December 31, 2025, against Rs 1,009.66 crore in the same period last year.