‘State working to exempt KMC added area residents from BLRO tax’

Kolkata: The decision to exempt citizens residing in the added areas of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) from paying land tax to BLRO has apparently fallen victim to red-tapism if the words of Mayor Firhad Hakim are to be taken into consideration.

On Friday, Councillor Rupak Ganguly raised before the Mayor that the citizens in added areas (wards 101 to 144) are still having to pay land tax to the BLRO office while citizens in other wards in the KMC area do not have to do so. He said time and again the residents of these added areas have raised the issue with the councillors of these wards, questioning when a solution will be found to this “discrimination”.

Ganguly said that the last time he had raised this issue he was assured by the Mayor that the issue was under consideration of the Land department and the state Cabinet may soon implement a decision towards solving the matter. He requested the Mayor to look into it so the residents of added areas do not have to pay “double tax”. The Mayor said, excluding wards one to 100, some of the wards fall under different municipalities where the West Bengal Land Reforms Act is applicable. “KMC takes only a service tax for roads, water supply, lighting etc. But it is true that residents in the added areas of KMC are kind of having to pay double tax which they feel is discriminatory. This creates a pressure on the councillors. To fix the issue, laws under the Land department need to be amended.

We have already moved the matter at a higher level and I have personally drawn the attention of the Chief Minister towards this issue. However, it is stuck in a bureaucratic hurdle but I will try to bring about a solution to ensure there is parity in taxation among residents of wards 1 to 144,” the Mayor said.