Soon, KMC’s door-to-door camps for bringing more property owners under Unit Area Assessment ambit

Kolkata: The Assessment department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will soon conduct camps at apartments and housing complexes in the city to bring more property owners under the ambit of Unit Area Assessment (UAA).

The property tax collection of the KMC has increased by Rs 250 crore in 2022-23 in comparison to the previous fiscal of 2021-22. The collection this year has been Rs 1,117 crore against last year’s Rs 867 crore.

Presently, 35 percent of the city’s 8.5 lakh property taxpayers have opted for UAA, which is different from the old method of tax calculation, where the tax of property was decided based on its annual valuation.

“Presently in the Duare Sarkar (Government at Doorstep) camps held in the city, we have officials who are assisting people in filling up SAF (self-assessment forms) in connection with the UAA system. However, after the Duare Sarkar gets over, we will be organising camps at the doorsteps of citizens — in housing complexes and in the highrises of the city,” a senior official of the KMC’s assessment department said.

The assessment department has made it mandatory for property owners to convert to the UAA method from a rent-based valuation system before applying for mutation of properties.

Once an owner fills up a SAF (self-assessment form) and the annual valuation of a property is calculated, it will automatically pave the way for mutation application.

There have been complaints among a section of owners of complicated SAF and their inability to self-calculate their tax as per the UAA method.

The SAF has been simplified and the assessment department is constantly working on making the method of self-calculation of the property tax easier.

“We have also formed help desks in the borough offices where staff from the assessment department has been deployed to assist the property taxpayers to fill up SAF forms,” the official said.

The UAA was introduced in 2017 and deadlines have been extended time and again for the property tax owners to switch over to the UAA.