HC: Bidhannagar civic body can’t levy a surcharge on a property’s market value

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court recently ordered that the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) cannot levy a surcharge of 0.8 per cent on a property’s market value.

The matter was heard by the single bench of Justice Kausik Chanda on Tuesday. Chanda observed that the civic body cannot levy such surcharge under Section 133 of West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, 2006. This section deals with levy of surcharge on transfer of land.

The writ petition was filed by few lawyers based on an RTI response from the BMC. The Corporation in response to the RTI filed by lawyer Arindam Das had stated that during mutation, there is levy of a surcharge of 0.8 per cent of market value as mentioned in the deed of any immovable property, as per Section 133 of West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, 2006. The petitioners submitted that the current evaluation of their apartments was around Rs 2 crore. If service charge for mutation was levied on this valuation, it would require each to pay around Rs 1.6 lakh as mutation service change which is exorbitantly high.

It was further stated that Kolkata Municipal Corporation does not charge any service for mutation and as per information available on the website of state Urban

Development and Municipal Affairs, the mutation fees to be payable for residential properties which are valued above Rs 50,000 is Rs 200.