Kolkata Municipal Corporation goes after Property Tax Evaders

March 27, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is yet to realize a whopping Rs 1,000 crore as property tax over the last few years. And now, it has planned to crack the whip on major defaulters and go for attachment of their properties.

Prodded by Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, the civic body is now preparing a list of major defaulters. Under the glare are some nationalized banks, government departments and private commercial estates. According to KMC estimates, around 55 such defaulters owe the civic body Rs 110 crore as property tax, high enough to bore holes into its development plans.

The authorities have decided to issue a distress warrant to all major defaulters, failing which the properties would be attached. A KMC official said the properties of habitual offenders — who have repeatedly ignored reminder notices to clear their dues — would be attached.

That’s not the case for government properties. The civic bosses have decided to go slow on that count after nationalized banks started paying up following an intervention by municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Even Central Excise authorities have paid Rs 1 crore and promised to pay at regular intervals.

But a KMC list specified that Rs 22 crore is pending from 11 nationalized banks. Some of the defaulters are Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, and State Bank of India, United Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and West Bengal Cooperative Bank. Bandyopadhyay conceded that the banks plan to clear their dues. “We have held meetings with the chairpersons, who have assured of all cooperation. Some banks have even started paying the dues,” he added.

Some of the other defaulters include the animal husbandry building on Belvedere Road, the commercial tax building on Beliaghata Road, the KIT chairman’s office on CIT Road, the South Eastern Railway headquarters at Garden Reach or Bengal Chemical’s office on Ganesh Chandra Avenue. According to KMC, outstanding taxes add up to more than Rs 50 crore. However, according to a senior KMC official, some of these defaulters have made partial payments and have promised to pay the rest.

This apart, some private commercial establishments such as a foreign bank on Shakespeare Sarani or an office complex on Park Street are also on the KMC list of defaulters.

Things had earlier changed for the better after former mayor Subrata Mukherjee acted tough with a couple of five-star hotels. The mayor had obtained a go-ahead from the court to snap water supply to the defaulters. The threat worked wonders and the KMC mopped up an additional Rs 50 crore.

News Published Under:   Real Estate India, Kolkata |

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