Kolkata civic body to embrace new system for property tax calculation
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to embrace the property tax model of New Delhi Municipal Corporation that has both rent-based valuation and unit area assessment running in parallel, giving house owners the option to either stay on with the former or shift to the latter. The KMC decision was prompted by a fall in property tax collection since the UAA was introduced. Though a section of house owners shifted to UAA and another paid the dues according to the rent-based valuation, many have done neither, leading to a sharp decline in property tax collection. A revenue department official said the poor response of property owners even two years after the UAA had been rolled out had forced the assessment department to shelve any thoughts of scrapping the previous rent-based valuation system. “We could not do away with the rent-based valuation for determining property tax as that would have led to an even greater revenue loss. We have extended the deadline for UAA thrice since 2017. But even that hasn’t improved the situation. Barely 10% of property owners have moved to UAA till date,” said a KMC assessment department official.
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