Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, which has started the process of property tax collection for the 2024-25 fiscal, has decided to levy a 1% conservancy charge and a 0.7% sewerage charge on the residents of all its 41 wards, based on the annual tax valuation. These amounts, aimed to achieve a cleaner locality, were till last year added to only Salt Lake property bills.
The BMC, which has been generating tax bills, plans to start sending them out from this week.Residents of Nayapatti and Mahishbathan, who till now paid “khajna” or land revenue, will for the first time receive property tax bills.
On receiving the bills, property owners in the BMC area can pay online or offline with cash, cheque or a demand draft at designated bank branches within the BMC area or at the tax collection offices from 11 am to 3 pm on working days. For those who failed to pay their property tax earlier, the civic body will impose a 10% penalty and a 10% interest, payable against due amounts till March 31. Officials said their target was to collect Rs 40 crore from property tax this fiscal.
A civic official pointed out that the conservancy and sewerage charges were so far added to the property bills for houses only in Salt Lake, covering wards 29 to 34, 37 and 39 to 41. But from this year, he said, it was decided to introduce uniform conservancy and sewerage charges for all its 41 wards, including Rajarhat-Gopalpur, for better waste management. They were going by provisions and guidelines of the West Bengal Solid Waste Management Policy, he added.
About the abolition of khajna system in some areas, a BMC official said residents of four wards in BMC—27, 28, 35, and 36 covering Mahisbathan, Nayapatti and the bheri area —did not have a property tax structure so far. Those places were included as wards after the civic body’s upgrade to a municipal corporation in 2015. “The mutation process for several homes in wards 27 and 28 is on. Those who have completed the mutation of their plots and received assessee numbers can start paying property tax. They will not be part of the earlier ‘khajna’ system. Tax bills will be sent to the properties, according to assessments. Next in line will be wards 35 and 36, covering the bheri areas,” said a BMC official.
But residents complained despite being part of a municipal corporation, civic services in Nayapatti and Mahishbathan were not up to the mark.