KMC may allow 100% waiver of penalty in property tax

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation may allow complete (100 per cent ) waiver of both interest and penalty in property tax with effect from August 1.

The complete waiver will be allowed to those who will apply for such relaxations in their property tax arrear bills in the first six months.

For those who will be applying for such waiver in the following three months,

the civic body will allow 60

per cent discount in interest and 99 per cent in case of penalty.

"The proposal has been sent to the state government and we are waiting for the nod," said Firhad Hakim, Chairman of Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Sources said that this waiver will be applicable for those whose property tax is due till March 31.

If implemented, this will be the third waiver scheme in the KMC. The first waiver scheme was introduced during the tenure of Subrata Mukherjee (2000-2005) and was followed during that of Sovan Chatterjee (2010-2015) .

It had allowed the defaulters to pay only the principal arrear with penalty and interest for non payment being waived.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has already decided not to send property tax arrear bills to the house owners that are more than six years old.

"We have found that some house owners in the city who have inherited any property or have purchased from somebody are at a loss when a property tax bills with huge arrears pending for decades are sent to them," said a Kolkata Municipal Corporation officia.

"They are often not aware that such an exorbitant arrear is pending with the property tax," added the KMC official .

The six year window includes GR (general revaluation) which is done once in six years.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has also decided that new apartments that will come up will have to pay tax under Unit Area Assessment (UAA) system.

There have been cases when it has been found that flats located in the same premises having equal areas do not have the same tax rates.