New property tax system: KMC told to study impact

KOLKATA: Scheme Review Committee constituted by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has asked for conducting revenue impact stimulation before introduction of the overhauled Unit Area Assessment (UAA) system of paying property tax, which the civic body is expecting to introduce soon. The Scheme Review Committee recently held its meeting

“The committee has in principle agreed to the measures that we are going to introduce for making UAA user friendly so that more and more people come under its ambit. However, the external members of the committee in the likes of Professor Abhirup Sarkar has asked for doing revenue impact stimulation that involves a mathematical study of the impact of revenue in the existing system and the overhauled UAA that we are going to introduce soon,” a senior official of KMC said.

According to sources, the KMC is proposing to bring

down occupancy charge for the tenants and bringing down the charge of commercial property that rents the same for usage to another party.

KMC had mopped up Rs 881 crore property tax during last year. This year in the first six months (January to June), the revenue has reached nearly Rs 420 crore which is Rs 100 crore more than the corresponding period, the previous year. Credai Bengal, an advocacy group for real estate developers in the state has provided suggestions about simplification of UAA and the KMC has also taken into consideration

the pattern followed by other metro cities in mopping up assessment tax.

The number of tax payers as per records of KMC’s Assessment department is over 8 lakh out of which only 20 per cent are paying their tax through UAA. “There were a lot of complexities involved in the UAA system. It has been simplified and after doing the revenue impact stimulation as per directions of the review committee, we will seek its approval and sent it to the state government for its necessary nod,” a senior official of KMC’s Assessment department said.