April 9: People buying houses in Calcutta should simultaneously apply for unit area assessment of property tax and mutation, civic officials have said.

Many new house-owners are confused whether they can apply for unit area assessment of their properties in the absence of mutation and an assessee number.

"There is no reason why a flat or house-buyer cannot apply for the unit area assessment. We want them to apply for the assessment and mutation simultaneously," an official in the assessment department of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said.

For properties where mutation in awaited, the owner should use the assessee number of the plot on which the flat or the house has been built in the application for unit area assessment.

If the building has come up in the place of another, the assessee number of the old building can be used.

The CMC has introduced the unit area assessment in the calculation of property tax in all wards except 142, 143 and 144 on April 1. All property owners are required to submit a filled-in form to the CMC by May to get their properties assessed under the new system.

In the new system, which aims to reduce the dependence on civic inspectors, owners have to assess the value of their properties. The self-evaluation forms can be collected from the CMC's assessment department offices at the civic headquarters on SN Banerjee Road, and in Santoshpur, Gariahat, Baghajatin, Garden Reach and Taratala.

The forms are also available at the e-Calcutta service centres and can be downloaded from the Internet.

The unit area assessment is expected to make property tax more rational, thus bringing down the tax of properties overburdened with high tax. It is also expected to increase the tax for those properties that have abnormally low tax.

The CMC has already generated property tax bills for the 2017-18 fiscal based on the old system. Property owners will need to pay the tax mentioned in the bill. If it is found that the tax calculated under the new system is lesser, the balance will be adjusted in the next bill.