KMC extends date of application for waiver scheme by a month

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is extending the date of application for availing the facilities of waiver scheme by a month till January 2021. The move comes with the assessment department of the civic body having much less applications than desired for availing benefits of the scheme,

The previous dateline for application to get benefit of the waiver scheme was till December 31 this year.

Now persons who will be applying for the waiver scheme till January will get complete waiver on penalty and interest till February 28, 2021 and the defaulter has to pay only the principal amount. The persons who have received their bill by March in the last financial year ending March 31, 2020 will be entitled to derive benefit of the waiver scheme

"We have mopped up Rs 150 crore through property tax collection under waiver scheme toll date and the applications received has been to the tune of Rs 600 crores," said Atin Ghosh, Member Board of Administrators, KMC who is in charge of the Assessment department. Sources in the department said that the minimum target of collection from entire Kolkata till today (December 31) was Rs 2500 crores..

Since the middle of December KMC has laid emphasis on door to door campaign to mop up its property tax collection which has not picked up its desired pace even after the introduction of waiver scheme on October 3.

There are 5 lakh odd tax payers among which 400 are major defaulters against whom the civic body owed Rs 1,500 crore before the introduction of waiver.

The tax collection had nosedived drastically during the lockdown period particularly from March to May.

The collection in the end of May stood at Rs 30 crore against Rs 300 crore during the corresponding time in 2019.