The Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Saturday collected record revenue from the city’s property owners availing the special interest waiver scheme on unpaid property tax. According to a KMC revenue department official, while the civic body had collected Rs 400 crore revenue under the special scheme since October 1 last year, Rs 31 crore was collected on Saturday.
The city’s property owners on Saturday made a beeline for the KMC treasury counters to avail of the special waiver scheme and clear their tax dues. The KMC had introduced a 100% interest waiver on unpaid property tax last October. The deadline for payment for the scheme was extended till February 28.
As the deadline drove hundreds to queue up in front of the KMC treasury counters across the city, the civic brass on Thursday decided to keep open the counters by extending business hours to 6pm till Sunday. According to sources in the KMC revenue department, the civic body’s treasury counters — including the one located at the headquarters — fetched Rs 31 crore from property tax payers on Saturday.
“We were overwhelmed with the response of the property tax payers who didn’t want to miss the opportunity of availing the scheme. We had given a special instruction to officials manning our treasury counters not to refuse any applicant who had queued up to pay their dues,” said a KMC revenue department official. Of the Rs 31 crore collected across the city, Rs 13 crore came from south Kolkata, Rs 11 crore from north Kolkata and rest from the added areas.
According to a KMC assessment department senior official, hopes rose after a record collection on Saturday and they expect to collect a similar amount on Sunday also. “We will keep all our treasury counters open till 6pm tomorrow. Senior officials of the assessment department will attend their offices at the headquarters to assist property owners who may come with some kind of difficulties,” the civic official said.
According to a KMC official, the revenue collected will be spent on clearing dues of contractors engaged in keeping the city’s essential services intact. However, an assessment department official said the civic body had prepared a list of habitual and big defaulters who have not applied for the interest waiver scheme. “After the deadline expires, we will send notices to these habitual defaulters and, if they fail to respond, we will be forced to take legal action,” the official said.
The waiver scheme had first been introduced in 2003 when Subrata Mukherjee was mayor. Then, only 50% waiver had been provided on the interest that had accrued on property tax dues. The scheme was aimed at mopping up revenue for infrastructure development. The scheme had been popular and funds that were raised were utilized in augmenting water supply and modernizing the drainage system. When Sovan Chatterjee took over as mayor in 2010, he, too, introduced the scheme twice. But they did not elicit much response from property owners.
