Brace yourself for the property tax bill this year. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has used some new calculation method this time and the amounts have shot up.
The civic body has started sending notices for property tax to houses and several councillors The Telegraph spoke to said that they were receiving calls from irate residents. Some want to know why there has been a hike while some others are claiming the hike is an arbitrary decision that would burn holes in their pockets at a time when they are already burdened by skyrocketing prices of LPG cylinders and other staples.
The corporation has hiked the property tax rates in all three sectors of Salt Lake with a view to increase its earnings from tax collection. Property tax collection forms an important source of revenue generation for any urban local body apart from other avenues such as parking fee collection, advertisement and hoarding taxes and renting out of utilities like ceremonial houses and community halls run by the civic body, a senior official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation said.
The corporation has been sending out the tax bills to mailboxes of both standalone houses as well as housing complexes based on the new tax structure that is being calculated on the area value of the property divided by 100 and multiplied by 10 per cent for those having area value up to Rs 999. The area value calculation is not being tampered with, as it is being fought out in a legal battle in court for many years now.
For properties having area value greater than Rs 999 the calculation will be the same except that the multiplying factor will be 20 per cent.
To date the civic body had been sending tax bills at the old tax rates from 3.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent based on assessment of area values of property ranging Re 1-Rs 1,00,000.
Late fees
To ensure that residents pay up on time the civic body has decided on a penalty structure. The late payment penalty will amount to 10 per cent of the due tax arrears.
This system however has caught residents off guard. Subhashis Pal, a resident of AL Bloc, who lives in a two-storey house, said he used to pay around Rs 800 towards property tax every year. This year he has received a tax bill of around Rs 2,200.
“There has been a steep increase and that too, without consulting us residents at all. It will take a toll on our budget for running the household,” said Pal.
Avijit Sen, a BH Block resident, echoed Pal. “Taxes have been hiked more than two fold and there was no prior intimation about it. The civic body should have called us in for a hearing and before taking such a drastic step,” Sen said.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in its budget has set a revenue target of Rs 294.56 crore in the financial year 2022-2023.
According to records provided by the corporation, a total of Rs 42.41 crore in the form of property taxes is yet to be collected throughout the 41 wards of the civic body that comprises Salt Lake, Baguiati, Kestopur and parts of Rajarhat. In Salt Lake the unrealised tax arrears amount to Rs 19.32 crore. From other areas including Rajarhat and Gopalpur the civic body has not managed to collect Rs 23.09 crore in tax arrears yet.
Pay online
In order to close in on the arrears, mayor Krishna Chakraborty said that they would also send civic teams to every locality to ask people to pay up. “Residents will get an option of paying the teams directly without leaving their houses,” Chakraborty said while adding that the exercise will be started from next month.
Alternatively residents can pay online by logging into https://proptax.bmcwbgov.in/PropertyTaxOnline/PropertyTax/Online.aspx. For those wishing to pay at Poura Bhavan, a property tax collection centre has also been set up on the ground floor of the civic headquarters.
Residents can also make payments at HDFC Bank branches across Salt Lake in BB, CJ and IA Blocks.
Write to saltlake@abp.in