The annual tax levied on a real estate property by the Government authorities is known as Property Tax. Respective municipalities collect these funds to provide civic amenities and other services to its citizens.

Similarly, residential owners in Kolkata must pay taxes to the KMC (Kolkata Municipal Corporation) every year. Here, we have compiled some important facts about Kolkata Municipal Corporation property tax and made a comprehensive guide to simplify the process.

Scroll down to know the details!

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Bill was passed on the 15th of December 2016, to make the tax collecting process seamless. This empowered the Kolkata Municipal Corporation or KMC to effectively assess an individual's property tax and also control the increase or decrease of the rates.

The calculation of property tax by KMC is done by following the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) scheme. Under this scheme, property owners can easily calculate their taxes themselves.

Here are some important pointers of the UAA system:

• Under this scheme, the city is divided into 293 blocks, which are further sub-divided into 7 categories ranging from A to G. This is based on factors like infrastructure, property’s market value, and other facilities.
• The different categories have an annual value as per square feet, known as Base Unit Area Value or BUAV. The highest BUAV value is for category A, and the lowest BUAV value is for category G.
• The slum areas around Kolkata falls in category G so as to reduce the tax burden on these economically weaker sections.
• The RR colony or the Refugee Rehabilitation colony and residences that falls under the Government’s BSUP and EWS schemes falls under category E.
• This uniform tax calculating scheme covers around 6 lakh Kolkata corporation property taxpayers.

Now, let us see how the calculation of BUAV works for land comprising building or vacant land or covered space of a building.

Taxpayers can opt for online and offline procedures for property tax payment. Both modes of payment are extremely convenient and effective. Now we will explain the procedures of tax payment in a nutshell.

KMC Property Tax Online Payment

Given below are the steps to follow for KMC tax payment online:

• Visit the official website of KMC.
• From the menu in your right-hand side, choose the option “Make Online Payment”.
• Click on the “Property Tax Option”.
• Choose the option “All Bill”. Herein, you will see a page that entails unpaid property taxes.
• Fill in the necessary details – Email address, Assessee no., contact number.
• Click on the “Search” button. Finally, you can see the due property tax amount.
• Complete the payment as directed to the website.
• After completing the KMC property tax payment online, you will get an e-receipt. Save it for future references.

Apart from knowing how to pay KMC property tax bills online, you should also be aware of the offline payment procedure.

KMC Property Tax Offline Process

To opt for offline payment of KMC property tax, the following steps are necessary to follow.

• You have to visit your respective municipal corporation. 
• After visiting the center, you need to get an application form.
• Fill up all the necessary details in the application form as mentioned above in the online process.
• After completion submit the application to the designated authority.
• After paying the fee, you will receive a KMC property tax receipt. Keep it for future use.

Additionally, taxpayers need to pay a lump sum amount before the first quarter of a fiscal year. Therefore, the last date to pay the Kolkata corporation tax in online or offline mode is June 30.

Visit the official portal to know the Kolkata Municipal Corporation property tax online payment status. Upon entering the property details on the official website, you can clarify your KMC property tax payment status.

No matter how you pay your Kolkata corporation property tax, tax receipt or challan is critical to collect. In online mode, you can collect the challan from the official website and reprint it in case you forget to do initially. When you pay in offline mode, you can collect the receipt from respective centers after paying the fees.

The main aspects of the KMC property tax waiver scheme are as follows:

• Till today, KMC have been using the blanket waiver system whereby, 50% waiver on rate of interest 99% waiver on penalties shall keep continuing till September 2023.
• KMC plans to create slabs between two kinds of defaulters. For defaulters who are due to pay tax for long years, they will get less relief. Secondly, for those people who are new defaulters will get a lesser penalty charge.
• Recent talks by the officials also puts forward the point that the amount of waiver for a defaulter will rely on the number of years the tax is due for payment.