KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC ) revenue department has decided to start general revaluation (GR) of properties along with bringing property tax payers under the mandatory Unit Area Assessment UAA ) system.According to plans, two teams of KMC assessment department inspectors will go from door to door to help tax payers. One team will help assessees fill up the SAF form to switch to UAA and the other to take note of any changes, if any, the properties have undergone in the past six years. Depending on the change, the KMC inspectors will revaluate the properties under the GR scheme. If a building has not undergone any change or any portion has not been rented out, KMC will levy a 10% hike in the existing tax structure.“We have started sending our inspectors to households across the city so that the property tax payers can adopt UAA without hesitation,” said a KMC assessment department official.The decision to start the GR process was taken after a section of revenue department and finance department officials pointed out that if the civic body allows property tax payers to switch over to UAA from the rent-based calculation system (for determination of property tax), KMC would incur huge revenue loss since the GR process is pending in most of the wards.“Of 144 wards, the KMC inspectors have hardly been able to cover 28 wards under the mandatory GR scheme. We need to bring the rest under the scheme by next three months. Though it is an uphill task, we need to wrap up the job as fast as possible,” said a KMC assessment department official.The official pointed out that the civic body had only five months in hand, within which 7.8 lakh assessees will be brought under the mandatory UAA scheme. “We have set a September deadline for city’s property tax payers to switch to UAA. But then, we should finish the GR work by July. Without wrapping up the GR work, we may incur a huge financial loss which may go up to over Rs 300 crore,” said a KMC revenue department official.Under severe financial stress through which the civic body is currently undergoing, the civic authorities have decided to offer property tax interest waiver to all defaulters for the entire financial year. This is an attempt to mop up revenue and at the same time give an opportunity to the defaulters to clear their dues and switch to UAA, said a KMC assessment department official.“We have decided to continue with the property tax waiver scheme. This means that any tax defaulters can avail the scheme under which he/ she will be entitled to get a 50% property tax waiver. After clearing the dues, the defaulter will be eligible for applying to switch to UAA,” a senior KMC revenue department official said.

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