BMC will start collecting 10% penalty and 10% interest on property tax arrears from April 1 onwards. It will be calculated based on dues as on March 31 this year.
The civic body has set a target to collect Rs 40 crore from property tax in the ongoing financial year which is to end on March 31.
The penalty and interest was supposed to be payable from Oct 1 last year, but the civic authorities deferred the plan. Officials said that it would be easier for the authorities to calculate and impose the penalty and fine on arrears of all the four quarters of the year instead of taking the penalty and interest for the first two quarters and then again calculating the arrears for the third and fourth quarters.
Taxpayers can either pay online, generating the demand notices through their assessee number or pay by cash, cheque or demand draft at designated bank branches and tax collection offices between 11 am to 3 pm on any working day. The authorities have also been holding doorstep property tax collection camps for tax payers of Rajarhat-Gopalpur area.
The authorities are also planning to start collecting property tax from April 1 from residents of four BMC wards — 27, 28, 35 and 36 — that cover a huge area of Mahisbathan, Nayapatti and the vast bheri areas off EM Bypass who still pay ‘khajna’ or land revenue to the local panchayat or BLRO office. The residents will also be able to do mutation of properties.
BMC, with the help of the West Bengal Valuation Board, is also working on the process to reassess the property tax structure of Salt Lake and Rajarhat-Gopalpur and come up with a uniform tax structure for all its 41 wards. Officials said the last time a general assessment of the tax structure of BMC was held was in 2005-06 for wards 1 to 26, which fell under the erstwhile Rajarhat Gopalpur municipality. For Salt Lake, which used to be under the former Bidhanagar municipality, the assessment was done from 1996 to 2000.
