No significant hike in property tax within KMC area: Mayor

Kolkata: In the wake of confusion as to whether property tax is being increased significantly within the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area, Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday clarified that there is no chance of any hike since there is already a cap under the unit area assessment system of taxation.

Addressing the question as to whether property tax is being hiked, the Mayor said: “There is no chance of an increase. Property tax percentage is already capped under the unit area system of taxation. Taxes can neither be increased above 20 per cent nor lowered below 20 per cent.”

The Mayor further said: “What has been decided in the latest MMIC meeting is a change of definition of area categories. Our taxation system is defined area-wise. In areas where there are middle or low-income groups of people, the tax percentage is lower. Places where there are high-income category residents, taxes are higher.”

He explained: “We have observed that in category A areas (higher income people) such as in Alipore, there are certain pockets which are inhabited by middle and low-income residents. We will change the definition of these areas to category G. Similarly, for areas where high-income group people reside but the area is under G category, we will change it to A. Areas with multi-storeyed buildings will be changed to A.”

A senior KMC official told Millennium Post that instead of an increase in tax, after switching to the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) method of property tax evaluation, many will find that their taxes have come down. This will also include commercial properties besides residential ones. What has increased is the usual nominal increase in Base Unit Area Values (BUAV) that happens after general revaluation which takes place after every six years.

Under the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) method of property tax evaluation, wards are divided into blocks using a statistical method and are further categorised into one of seven categories (A, B, C, D, E, F and G with A being the highest and G being the lowest category). Each of these seven categories is assigned a particular Base Unit Area Values (BUAV) which is the specific initial annual value per sqft. for properties situated within a block having a specific category.