TimesView There have been several one-step-forward-twosteps-back moves in the KMC’s implementation of the UAA system. Also, there still seems to be some amount of confusion among taxpayers. A sort of “sensitisation programme”, perhaps, is in order. KOLKATA: Out of desperation to bring more property owners under the unit area assessment ( UAA ) system, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation assessment department has gone for ‘forced conversion’. An official, however, said the civic body will extend the deadline to convert to the new system till September 30, though it was slated to expire on March 31.Under the ‘forced conversion’ method, if a property owner refuses to switch over to UAA from rent-based valuation and fails to fill in the self-assessment form (SAF) giving details about his/her property, the assessment department inspectors will go to their residences with a SAF and convert them to the UAA system.According to a revenue department official, the civic top brass had in January asked the assessment department inspectors to prepare a ward-wise list of assessees who are yet to switch over to UAA and pay a visit to those households along with a SAF. “The instruction was sent as the civic bosses wanted to expedite the process of conversion from the rent-based valuation system to UAA system. The revenue department bosses were in a hurry to teach the unwilling assessees a lesson, as by June 2018 (more than a year after UAA was introduced), only 40,000 assessees could be brought into the UAA network,” said an assessment department official.Observing the sheer lack of response from taxpayers, the revenue department officials asked the assessment department inspectors to stop mutation of those assessees who have not applied for UAA. “We made conversion to UAA mandatory in case of issuing mutation certificates. This strategy worked for us, especially in the added areas and some south Kolkata localities. The number of assessees brought into the UAA network rose to 70,000 by January 2019,” said a KMC official.This was the time when the civic top brass decided to send assessment department inspectors to households and conducted a drive to bring more assessees into the UAA fold. The inspectors knocked on the doors of assessees in Dhakuria, Gariahat Road, Kasba, Jadavpur, Baghajatin, Netaji Nagar, Jodhpur Park, Tollygunge and Behala, as well as in some areas off EM Bypass, and distributed SAF to be filled in by them. “In the past two and a half months, we have brought more than 10,000 property owners into the UAA fold,” said a revenue department official.According to another official, the civic top brass was desperate to bring in as many property owners into the UAA system as possible after a dip in the revenue in 2018-19. “A dip in revenue made the revenue department bosses panic. They decided to run two systems simultaneously. But, after introduction of UAA, the previous rent-based valuation of property was supposed to be null and void. But we have been forced to keep the previous system alive till the majority of the property tax payers are converted to the UAA system,” said an official of the revenue department.

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