The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is to categorize the property owners and charge taxes accordingly, informed KMC mayor Firhad Hakim today. Following the decision, citizens of lower income groups would now be spared from paying higher taxes. The civic body is also considering plans to bring all the property owners under the ‘unit area assessment’ system. Addressing the media, the mayor said, “There is no possibility of increase in property tax as there are already capping on the unit area. It can come above or below 20 per cent.

It has been done in such a manner that the people from upper income groups would pay higher tax and those from the middle or lower sections would pay lower taxes. The areas have been defined accordingly.” For example, citizens belonging to the middle or lower section, living in a posh area would be charged accordingly while people of ‘upper group’ income or living in complexes would be charged more, according to the mayor. “In this manner, the definitions would be changed,” added Mr Hakim. The residential housing complexes are to be included in the ‘A’ category, irrespective of the locality while the standalone buildings are to remain as they are, according to the mayor.

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Notably, there are about nine lakh property owners in the city, of which only about 26 per cent citizens have registered themselves under the unit area assessment system. According to the mayor, from now on, even those property owners would automatically come under the unit area assessment system. The unit area assessment (UAA) has been introduced to rationalise the property tax structure. The location of the buildings, width of the roads on which they are situated and infrastructure are taken into account while calculating the property tax.

The KMC will conduct a special drive to collect property tax from the owners whom it has failed to track down. The civic authorities have sent notices, but they have failed to evoke necessary responses.