A house-owner in south Calcutta paid his property tax dues in cash at the Gariahat treasury office and collected a payment receipt.

Months later, he received an outstanding demand notice for the same period, after dishonest employees erased his payment record from the civic database.

Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) officials refused to accept the receipt as proof of payment and insisted that the house-owner cough up the amount with interest and penalty.

The house-owner is not alone. Most house-owners in the city have had property tax demand notices slapped on them despite clearing the dues years ago.

And in the majority of the cases, the CMC refused to accept the receipts it had issued or bank records as evidence of payment. The assessment officers made the house-owners run from pillar to post to procure bank clearance and other documents.

House-owners might get a better deal if a set of recommendations by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on adjustment of tax payments is implemented.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay had shortlisted 15 situations in which house-owners possess one or more pieces of proof of tax payments but no entry to that effect in the civic records, and sought recommendations on how to tackle them.

“For decades, tax-payers have been harassed due to lapses on part of the civic body. We sought the help of PwC to put an end to this,” said Bandyopadhyay.

PwC recently submitted its recommendations, which would be discussed at a meeting of the officers of the civic assessment, building and finance departments next week.