KMC set to launch survey of unassessed properties across city

Kolkata: In a bid to achieve its mission of bringing all properties under tax assessment, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to launch a survey in the city to identify unassessed properties which have no trace of owners or are lying abandoned.

Mayor Firhad Hakim recently announced that KMC is taking action to ensure there are no unassessed properties in Kolkata. He said within the next year, all properties will come under tax assessment. For this, the Mayor promised that camps will be arranged in big housing complexes to help people fill up assessment forms and also help them get the mutation of their properties done.

However, the KMC seems to have run into a hurdle as there are several properties in the city which are either lying abandoned for years with their owners untraceable. A KMC official said that although several such properties in the city continue to get water connections, no tax is paid for the property since owners remain untraceable. The official said that this also includes lands.

However, it was mentioned that in properties where owners are untraceable, KMC can recover taxes from the occupants.

Presently, the number of registered assesses has increased to Rs 9.14 lakh (upto January 31, 2023). But, KMC officials believe that if such unassessed properties are brought into the assessment structure then this count will rise, bringing more revenues. Hence, the civic body is mulling plans to launch a full-scale survey to determine the total number of such properties or lands in the city.

It is learnt that KMC will install signboards in such vacant lands or properties where owners cannot be found. Responsibility has been divided between the assessment collection department and the special commissioner (tax). For lands upto 5 cottahs, the responsibility of assessment lies with the assessment collection department. Lands measuring over 5 cottahs to 15 cottahs and more will come under the responsibility of the latter.

In 2022-23, KMC collected Rs 975 crore as property tax till January 31, 2023, compared to Rs 890 crore in 2021-22.

In the property tax waiver scheme floated in 2020, a reasonable amount of outstanding dues, Rs 535 crore approximately has been collected by the assessment department.