Kolkata Municipal Corporation to implement Unit Area Assessment for determining property tax

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is finally set to implement the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) for determination of property tax for city’s property owners. The UAA method has already been implemented in major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Patna. However, fearing a resentment among property owners in large areas of north Kolkata, the KMC authorities will introduce the UAA system as an optional and not mandatory for the property owners.Under the new system, a property owner can go for self assessment of his/her property and declare the same to the civic body after filling up a prescribed format. Any deviation from the declared statement will attract penalty, said a KMC official. Under the new system, the entire city will be divided into seven zones depending on the location and civic amenities being enjoyed by a property owner.
The proposal to introduce the UAA method was passed by the majority of the legislators in the state assembly way back in 2006. The KMC House passed it a year ago and former municipal commissioner Arnab Roy had set a January 1, 2012, deadline for introduction of the UAA. But it got delayed after more than a dozen Trinamool councillors and some MLAs took up the matter with mayor Sovan Chatterjee, requesting him to make no "hurry" in implementing the new method.
Sources in the KMC assessment department said that some Trinamool leaders had pointed out to the mayor that if the UAA was introduced, residents of large areas in north Kolkata would have to shell out heavy property tax. In fact, the KMC assessment department officials had already faced the resentment of a section of residents living in areas like Hatibagan, Bidhan Sarani, College Street, Amherst Street, Vivekananda Road. They had poured out their anger at a camp organized in Hatibagan four years ago.
Trinamool councillors from Behala and Jadavpur had also requested the mayor to reconsider the introduction of the UAA since tax rates for large areas of Behala (Parnasree, Shakuntala Park and Barisha, among others) and Jadavpur would go up significantly. After receiving such negative feedback, the civic authorities decided to delay the implementation of the UAA system.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said the civic body had decided to introduce the UAA method and was in the final stage of finalizing a date. Chatterjee claimed that the new method would lessen the tax burden from middle class.
According to the new list, some of the areas which will fall in category A include Burrabazar, BBD Bag, JL Nehru Road, Park Street, Alipore, Minto Park, Mullick Bazar, Gokhale Road. Localities like Sealdah, Phoolbagan/Kankurgachi, Ultodanga, Harish Mukherjee Road, Gariahat, Rashbehari Avenue, New Alipore and Southern Avenue will fall in category B. Parts of Bagbazar, Shyambazar, Girish Park, College Street, Subhas Sarobar and adjacent areas, Bowbazar, Bhowanipore, Jodhpur Park, areas adjacent to South City Mall and Calcutta Golf Club will come under category C. Areas near Sinthee, Dum Dum, Belgachia, Beadon Street, Ahiritola, Kumartuli, Bosepukur, areas from Taratala to James Long Sarani in Behala and Bansdroni, will come under category D. Chitpore, Bagmari, Watgunge, Garfa, Ekbalpore and Rajabazar will come under group E. A part of Beliaghata, the rest of Behala and Metiabruz will come under category F. Dhapa and other fringe areas will be included in category G.