May 25: The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) introduced the unit area assessment system of calculating property tax on April 1.
Property-owners have to fill in and submit a self-assessment form (SAF) to get their tax revised.
The new system promises to make the tax more rational. "Those who are unnecessarily paying a high tax will have their burden reduced, while those who are unjustly paying a low tax will have to cough up more. There is, however, a cap of 20 per cent on increase or decrease," a civic official said.
Metro answers FAQs on the unit-area system.
How many property tax payers are there in Calcutta?
About 7.5 lakh
How many of the owners have received SAFs?
A small percentage of the tax payers.
What is the deadline for submitting the filled-in SAFs?
May 30. An official in the civic assessment department, however, said residents could submit the form even after that. "We will accept filled-in forms even after May 30. The aim is to make tax-payers assess their properties," the official said.
Who all have to fill in SAFs?
Anyone who owns a house, flat, part of a house, vacant plot or a building under construction.
Where are the forms available?
• At all e-Kolkata Citizen Service Centres, common collection centres or treasury offices of the CMC. Forms are also available at the civic headquarters on SN Banerjee Road.
• The forms can be downloaded from the CMC website.
• A help desk has been opened at the main gate of the CMC headquarters, opposite Chaplin Park.
• The forms are only in English.
• The addresses of the e-Kolkata Citizen Service Centres are printed on the reverse of the property tax bill.
What to do if a property is not mutated yet?
The owners of such properties have to submit the SAF along with the mutation application.
What does one have to know while filling in the form?
Several data such as ground coverage, plot size, area of the water body in the compound (if any) and the width of the road in front of the property.
A flat owner also has to know the measurement of the common area, which includes staircase and lobby.
"Wrong and wilful suppression of facts may invite penalty," the SAF states.
What are Block ID and Category and base unit area value, the terms mentioned in the form?
The CMC has divided the city into 293 blocks and seven categories - A to G - based on the facilities available in each area. The base unit area value (BUAV) depends on which category your property falls under.
The help desks have Block ID maps, from which one can know the category under which a property falls.
The information is available on the CMC website, too. Click the "unit area assessment" menu on the right of the home page. A new page opens, on the left of which there is a menu called "final notification (block and categorisation)". Click it.
What is multiplicative factor?
Various factors have to be considered to arrive at the tax amount - age of the building, location, occupancy, usage and whether pucca or kuccha. Depending on the nature of your property, every parameter has been ascribed a value or multiplicative factor such as 1 or 0.5. These values will have to be multiplied while arriving at the final tax amount.
How long it takes to fill in the form?
Many people who have filled in the form said it took them several hours. "Read the entire form and the annexures carefully before you start writing," an official said.
Will my tax increase or decrease?
It depends on a lot of factors such as whether floors have been added since the last assessment. In any case, the increase or decrease will not be more than 20 per cent of the last paid tax. Expect a new tax bill calculated on the basis of the unit area assessment in the quarter that comes after the quarter in which the SAF is submitted.
Will the CMC explain the tricky parts?
There are help desks at all places from where the forms are being distributed or where the forms can be submitted. "The help desks will function for at least a year. More help desks will be set up. We are also planning to organise camps for the benefit of the tax payers," an official said.
Where can the filled-in forms be submitted?
There are six centres across Calcutta where the forms can be submitted, depending on the ward a taxpayer lives in
• Ward 1-51: North Calcutta centre at the CMC headquarters
• Ward 52-90 (except wards 66, 67, 89): South Calcutta centre at the CMC headquarters
• Ward 91-100 and wards 66, 67 and 89: Tolly tax centre at Gariahat Market building
• Wards 101, 102, 110 to 114: Baghajatin market office
• Ward 103-109: CMC office at Santoshpur market
• Ward 120-133: CMC office in Taratala
• Ward 134-141: CMC office in Garden Reach
Wards 142, 143 and 144 in Joka have been kept out of the unit area assessment.
How can the form be filled in and submitted online?
Visit https:// www.kmcgov.in /KMCPortal/HomeAction.do. On the right hand side of the home page there is a menu "make online payment". If one holds the cursor on it, several options will open. One has to place the cursor on the "property tax" option and then click "UAA online submission". Sign up after creating an User ID and password.
The tax payer now has to sign in and go to the Unit Area Assessment and finally to UAA SAF submission.
The form can be filled in online in several instalments.
Is physical submission of the form taking a lot of time?
Some people have complained that manual submission is taking a lot of time but a few said it only took them two minutes. The CMC employees who are accepting the forms are entering the details in computer, which is taking a lot of time.
One can opt for online submission to avoid this trouble.
What if a tax payer does not submit the SAF?
The CMC will assess the property on its own and fix a tax rate. The authorities will send a letter informing the owner about the tax to be paid. The owner can file an objection within 30 days, after which he or she will be called to a hearing. "There is a provision for penalty if one doesn't submit the SAF within 60 days of the publication of the notification (April 1) but it is unlikely to be imposed," an official said.
