You cannot pay property tax more than 6 years old

Kolkata: Bringing smiles to many and in a historic move, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided not to send property tax arrears bills to the house owners that are more than six years old.

"I have witnessed 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. They are often not aware that such an exorbitant arrear is pending with the property tax. I have already brought out legislation that property

tax arrears bills that are more than six years old cannot be sent to the house owners. A lot of tax is pending because of this issue and we will soon hold a meeting to sort out this problem," Mayor Firhad Hakim said.

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

A senior official of Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Building department said that the new decision of the KMC will put an end to the long-standing practice of a section of errant house owners and wait for waiver scheme. Previously, during the tenure of Subrata Mukherjee (2000-2005) and Sovan Chatterjee (2010-2015), waiver scheme was introduced that allowed the defaulters to pay only the principal arrear with penalty and interest for non-payment was 0waived.

"We want that people should pay their taxes happily and so we are coming out with a new policy on this," the Mayor added.

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

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