Builders to pay property tax from submission of plan to registration of apartment: KMC

kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will hold real estate developers responsible for payment of outstanding property tax during the period of completion of construction and subsequent registration of apartments in the city.

There have been several instances when promoters have kept the land owners in the dark about the property tax payable to the KMC during the period of completion of construction and subsequent registration in the name of the owner.

When the property tax bill is raised, the promoter deliberately walks away leaving the tax liability upon the flat owners.

In the weekly interactive programme Talk to Mayor where Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim directly listens to the citizens' grievances, there have been a number of calls in the recent past when

owners had to face harassment because of such unscrupulous practise by a section of promoters.

"From now on as soon as a building plan is submitted, it will be updated in the assessment register in the name of the promoter.

Till the time he does registration of the flats, the assessment tax will continue to be in the name of the promoter. Once he registers the flat and informs the KMC, the property tax will be transferred in the name of the owner,"Mayor Firhad Hakim said.

According to Hakim, the civic body will also ensure that once a flat is registered in the name of an individual,

the mutation of the flat should be done without delay so that the owner can pay property tax.

A senior official of KMC's Water Supply department said that a section of promoters, who have been constructing smaller projects in neighbourhoods, did not apply for fresh water connection for the residents of a building after its construction so that they could dodge the unpaid property tax.

According to an official from the concerned department, the move will ensure that such taxes are not evaded by the promoter.