Owners of apartments purchased through resale will no longer have to cough up property tax dues that date back several years, and at times, over a decade. Kolkata mayorFirhad Hakim on Saturday asked the assessment department to ensure that KMC did not demand dues exceeding one general revision (GR) from new owners, who have either bought a property or had been gifted one.
A GR or general revision of property tax is carried out every six years. Usually, the rate of hike is 10%.
The issue came to light when the mayor received two calls from property owners in the Garia-Patuli belt during the ‘Talk to Mayor’ session on Saturday. Both said they bought apartments on resale and that they were burdened with huge tax dues for no fault of theirs.
Hearing them out, Hakim made it known to KMC assessment department team that the civic authority could not demand unreasonable amount of money from a recent owner and fixed the limit of liability to one GR period. “It is your duty to give relief to owners of transferred property,” Hakim told civic staff.
Sources in the KMC assessment department said the new rules would offer relief to buyers of properties on resale but at the same, dent the civic coffers. A senior KMC official said the civic body would automatically switch all new flats to unit area assessment (UAA) method once the owners applied for mutation and instructions would be given to assessor collectors in the borough offices to give relief to buyers of resold properties or gifted properties.
