The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has extended the deadline for paying self-assessed property tax of the 2019-2020 financial year to December 31 keeping in view the outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown to contain it.

The original deadline for tax payment was June 2, an NKDA official said.

The decision to extend the last date of tax payment was taken after several residents requested the New Town authorities for a “breather given the pandemic situation”, the official said.

According to another NKDA official, a total of 17,353 residents paid their taxes by June 2. Another reason cited for extending the deadline is requests from non-resident Calcuttans owning property in New Town, who were unaware of the introduction of taxes and therefore failed to pay in time. “In consideration of the genuine time constraints faced by many, the authority has considered and reviewed the deadline for self-assessment and payment of tax,” the official said Tapan Chakraborty, who owns two apartments in Greenfield Heights, said he was happy that the NKDA had heeded their requests. “We are rarely stepping out because of the pandemic,” he said.

NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said they had trained Tax Sathis to help the residents go about the assessment and filing process.