The Times of India 07.10.2010
Property tax judge to move Lok Adalat
KOLKATA: When a property tax payer has a grouse over the annual valuation of his house or flat, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) asks him to go to the Lok Adalat and sort out the problem. But what does KMC do when a judge of the Lok Adalat herself has a similar grouse?
Meet Tapati Bhowmick, a registered judge of the KMC-run Lok Adalat, which deals with property tax disputes. Bhowmick has decided to move the Lok Adalat herself. Documents with Bhowmick show that the KMC assessment department inspectors posted at Gariahat, popularly known as Tolly Tax, increased the annual valuation of her three-storey house at Jadavpur Central Road from `25,000 to `1.25 lakh during general revaluation (GR). Her property tax will go up by at least five times.
And Bhowmick is not alone. Take the case of Kajal Banerjee. An owner of a flat at Bramhapur in Bansdroni, in the southern fringes of the city, Banerjee had gone to KMC's assessment department at Baghajatin to pay his outstanding bills. KMC officials asked him to pay `64,000 as dues. When Banerjee contested the claim, it revealed that the per-quarter tax of the flat was increased from `220 in December, 2004, to `2232 in January, 2005, after a GR done by KMC's assessment department. Banerjee was told that a 400-square-foot garage space was added to his 700-square-foot covered space of his flat and thus the annual valuation stood higher, resulting in a stiff increase in the property tax rate.
When Banerjee told that he had no garage, a KMC official assured him that the matter would end there and the tax rate would be rectified if "some officials were satisfied". The case is still pending.
Similarly, Partha Biswas, the owner of a flat at Dr S C Banerjee Road in Beliaghata, was in for a shock when a `5-lakh property tax bill reached his house last week. Biswas bought the flat six months ago and was about to clear the dues. Biswas took the tax bills to the KMC headquarters, where a senior assessment department official asked him to contact his promoter, since the amount was an accumulated one, and the past owner of any property that existed before the multi-storeyed building came up, who might have dodged property tax, which Biswas will have to clear now. A bewildered Biswas has been visiting senior KMC officials to arrive at a solution.
According to rules, the KMC assessment department inspectors are sent to various areas for conducting GR of properties once in every six years. Based on the addition, alteration or modifications of the properties, the annual valuation of the property changes. If the owner of any property goes for any additions or alterations, the civic body may levy a maximum of 20% hike in the annual valuation. However, hundreds of cases are being detected where the hike in the tax rate have shot up beyond this limit.
Flooded with complaints of irrational, arbitrary property tax hikes from across the city especially from areas falling under Tolly Tax the KMC brass had decided to open a Lok Adalat 18 months back to settle tax disputes fast. According to the KMC assessment department sources, more than 32,000 property tax cases are yet to be heard in the property tax tribunal. These cases are pending for the past five years.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee conceded that several anomalies existed in property valuation, which is why people were getting trapped in the property tax net.
Chatterjee, however, assured that taxpayers' problems would be taken care of till the new unit area method of valuation was introduced. "In cases of major disputes pending for a long time, we have asked KMC officials not to harass taxpayers," Chatterjee said.
