From April 2017, more than six-and-a-half lakh assesses under Kolkata Municipal Corporation will bid farewell to inspector raj and switch over to Unit Area Assessment (UAA) method to pay property tax.

The West Bengal assembly on Thursday passed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2016, paving the way for the new tax regime under which the taxpayer will make self-assessment and fill in a "self-declaration" form to calculate annual valuation of hisher property.

Keeping in view that the new assessment procedure may result in major alteration in property tax payable, the amended act has incorporated section 171A that empowers KMC to introduce regulations to fix different percentages on the valuation of different groups of buildings, land or land comprising buildings, so that the tax is more or less similar to the amount the owner used to pay earlier. The corporation has planned to exempt the poor living in slums and those in colonies from the tax net.

Under the UAA system, KMC has divided the city area into six broad categories (A to F) based on the utilities and services available in that locality. Localities will be graded upon the availability of piped drinking water, roads, drainage and easy access to the Metro network.

Next, to categorise buildings within a particular locality, the corporation will use multiplicative factors (MFs) depending on the character of the property -purpose of use (residential or commercial), age of property, its location within the area, structure and nature of occupancy. All these parameters will be considered while making the valuation of the property so that the taxpayer can calculate the tax on his own. However, under the new Act, the KMC will reserve the right to make changes on the valuation on a scale of 0.5 to 8. The final tax will be determined by the valuation with MF values.

SEE ALL COMMENTSADD COMMENT

If a house-owner makes a construction or alters any feature of hisher property, then heshe will have to mention it in the self-assessment form. If heshe defaults and the statement doesn't match with reality, the civic body may impose a stiff penalty. The KMC will also send an objection form wherein a taxpayer can explain the grounds of his objection to the existing tax rate.

A bill introducing the UAA system was brought in the assembly during the Left Front regime in 2006, but was not put to effect. "We have been working on AA since long. While considering UAA since long. While considering the heterogeneity of the different localities, we have tried to simplify the tax assessment. This may lead to a tax increase in some localities while residents in some localities may have to pay less tax. The KMC reserves the right to moderate the increase or decrease to a certain percentage so that there is parity across the city. We are hopeful we can switch to UAA by April this year," said mayor Sovan Chatterjee. State urban development minister Firhad Hakim said: "The city area has been divided into six categories based on the facilities available to locali ties. This is a scientific system to compute property tax in a transparent manner."