Salt Lake and New Town residents who have paid their property taxes in full are still getting calls from Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) asking them to pay their arrears.
In New Town, a resident of Action Area I received a call from NKDA that property tax of her apartment was due for the last three financial years.
But she had made the payments every quarter before the deadline and has the receipts issued by NKDA, which provides civic services in the township and is in-charge of property tax collection in all action areas.
When contacted, NKDA officials went through their records and found that two assessment numbers had been allotted to her apartment.
“Somehow during the online assessment, two assessment numbers were generated for the flat. Records show that the tax arrears had been paid in full for one of the assessment numbers, while it was due for the other. The software failed to identify that both assessment numbers were assigned to the same property,” said an NKDA official.
According to the resident, she had received multiple calls apart from a letter asking her to clear her dues.
NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said they had received multiple complaints about property tax errors.
“There were some reports about property tax payments or wrong notices demanding double payment. In order to address these issues, we have opened a special camp at the NKDA office. The camp will function till March 31,” Sen said.
Another NKDA official said residents could visit the camp till 2pm. “They have to bring documents in support of their claims,” he said.
According to the official, people who are getting calls even after making payments can get the records updated at the camp.
In Salt Lake, too, residents who have paid their tax arrears have been getting calls from Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, asking them to clear their dues.
Subhro Saha, a resident of FD Block, said he had received at least five calls from the civic body asking him to pay his taxes.
“A couple of them were IVR calls. In the rest, the callers identified themselves as employees of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and asked me to pay my taxes on time. When I told them I had already paid, they said they would get back to me.”
An official of the civic body said they could not update the records because they had been working with skeletal staff during the pandemic.
“Apart from the borough offices and Poura Bhavan, residents are paying their taxes in banks. We have updated the records of those who have made payments at civic offices but have not managed to update the records of those who have paid online or made bank transfers,” said the official.
The tax system in Salt Lake has long been caught in a legal tangle. The corporation is collecting taxes according to the assessment rates of 1997.
In parts of Rajarhat, residents are being sent bills based on the assessment rates of 2005.
Kumar Shankar Sadhu, a member of the Salt Lake Welfare Association, which had filed a case against the civic body over a proposed hike in property taxes, said: “Since the bills are being sent at the old rate in Salt Lake, we have no objection. However, the civic body has proposed a reassessment. We are following that closely.”
Krishna Chakraborty, mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said their primary focus was to start collecting taxes from several wards in Rajarhat where residents have not paid any taxes.
“More than 50 per cent of the residents of Salt Lake have already paid their dues at old rates. There is an ongoing case regarding fresh assessment rates and we have been directed to collect taxes on the basis of the old assessment structure. We want to focus on maximising tax collections and will wait for the court’s verdict,” Chakraborty told The Telegraph on Sunday.