KMC to go for tax law amendment to attract tax payers

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to amend laws relating to Unit Area Assessment (UAA) to attract city’s property tax payers to switch over to the new system.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Thursday held a meeting with the senior assessment department officials to do away with some unnecessary rules. For instance, a section of city’s shopping mall owners had approached the civic brass to exclude the common area of their malls from the property tax calculation. “Some mall owners have approached us to exempt the common areas from UAA calculation. We discussed the issue today and may consider the plea. For that we need to amend the present UAA laws. We are in the process of sending the UAA guidelines to the state for a change. The amendment will be placed before the assembly,” said a KMC assessment department official. The KMC has tied up with real estate developers’ forum CREDAI for implementation of UAA.


Among other changes that the civic fathers are planning include making the upper and lower limits of change in tax fixed. “We have decided not to accept a hike more than 20% of the present property tax amount for a household or a commercial property. Similarly, we won’t allow a fall in tax by more than 20%. This capping has been done deliberately to give relief to the property owners. We have no plans to alter this after a time span. But this has to be given a legal stamp by amending the present UAA laws,” mayor Sovan Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee said the civic body would invite tax defaulters to clear their dues and get eligible for the UAA. “Everyone has to switch over to the new UAA system. For the defaulters who owe the civic body more than Rs 2 lakh, we will offer a special 50% interest waiver on the accumulated tax. After clearing the tax, they will be eligible for the UAA,” he added. Chatterjee said the civic body was gearing up to provide tax payers the necessary support to switchover to the UAA. “From April 15, we will deploy professionals who will help property owners fill up the self-assessment forms. Our inspectors will visit flats, residential buildings and commercial properties and handover the SAF forms inviting them to switchover within a specified time,” Chatterjee said.