Kolkata, April 27 -- About 40 per cent of taxpayers in the city have shifted to the Unit Areas Assessment (UAA) method of property tax collection while the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is expecting the numbers to further grow by the end of 2025-26 financial year (FY).

KMC councillor Biswarup Dey has flagged the concern about a large number of taxpayers in the city continuing to be outside the UAA method of property evaluation. According to him, it is illegal if half the population continues to pay tax under the previous method while the other half is paying under the UAA via Self-Assessment Form (SAF). He proposed that KMC bring all properties under the UAA system by September 30, 2025 and announce a five per cent rebate for those who switch to such a method by this stipulated deadline. Ones who won't should be penalised. Mayor Firhad Hakim said the KMC cannot force anyone to switch to the UAA and neither can it levy any penalty for not doing so. He said that many are not tech savvy which is a problem in paying the taxes online. "The KMC is holding camps and Assessment department officials are visiting homes to help people fill up the SAF. We believe that by the end of the 2025-26 financial year the number of taxpayers under the UAA system will further grow," the Mayor said.

An Assessment department official confirmed that 40 per cent of taxpayers have submitted SAFs. KMC organised camps and extended SAF submission deadlines to encourage compliance.

The UAA method of property tax evaluation, effective since May 1, 2007, and revised from April 1, 2017, divides KMC's 141 wards into 293 blocks categorised from A to G based on predefined criteria (e.g., age, location, occupancy, structure, usage).

The civic body also intends to extend the UAA scheme to the wards 142, 143 and 144.

These wards were previously outside KMC jurisdiction during the initial implementation of the UAA. Published on April 25, a Millennium Post article reported that in a bid to increase its property tax collection, KMC has proposed to reconstitute the Municipal Valuation Committee (MVC) for revising the base unit area value of property tax under UAA for wards 1 to 141.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.