Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is all set to form 'Hardship Redressal Committee' (HRC) for examination of applications by the tax payers who plan to seek relief in case of excessive hardship in paying off property tax under Unit Area Assessment (UAA) system.
A senior official of the KMC said HRC has been formed for providing relief to tax payers who face excessive hardship in paying property tax within the ambit of Section 173 B of KMC Act 1980.
"As per provisions of the act, the committee after receiving the application in writing by the tax payer concerned, may review the amount payable for the property or may realize the sum in installments.
The Committee is also empowered to make recommendations for any relief to the KMC for consideration," the official said.
The formation of HRC has already been passed at the Member Mayor-in-Council's (MMiC) meeting of the civic body that was held in June.
The eight-membered team will have MMiC (Solid Waste Management) Debabrata Majumder as the Chairman. The matter will be passed at the monthly meeting of the KMC on May 20.
It may be mentioned that the KMC had extended the deadline for payment of property tax under UAA system for a period of six months with effect from April 1.
The last date for paying property tax under UAA was earlier announced till March 31. Inspectors from the civic body's assessment department has been travelling from door to door of the residents and handing out forms of UAA and also guiding them on how to pay tax under UAA.
"An unnecessary scare about the new property tax calculation method has kept assessees from embracing the new UAA method. We need to put an end to this irrational fear and for this we are taking all measures," the official maintained.
KMC had introduced UAA in April 2017 but the response was lukewarm with only 50,000 of the 2.75 lakh assessees opting for it and submitting the applications till the middle of March.
Sources in the assessment department said civic authorities has set a fresh target of Rs 998 crore in property tax for the next fiscal that began from April 1.