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The West Bengal Assembly passed the West Bengal Municipal Corporation (Amendment) and West Bengal Municipal (Amendment) Bills 2024, which introduced a new property tax assessment system based on Unit Area Assessment (UAA). According to the amendments, if a property鈥檚 tax assessment remains unchanged for more than five years, the annual value will be automatically increased by 5 to 10 per cent every five years as an interim measure until a new assessment list is finalised. This reform is aimed at streamlining property tax calculation and promoting greater compliance through self-assessment and self-declaration mechanisms. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has already implemented the UAA, which was temporarily halted due to the pandemic but has now resumed. The valuation process has recently started in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation. Under the new system, property owners will be required to file self-assessment returns, either digitally or manually, as determined by the respective municipal corporation. The assessment will be based on a rate chart specified in the final scheme published by the West Bengal Valuation Board. Municipal corporations are tasked with preparing an assessment list within one year of the scheme's publication, which will cover all properties within their jurisdiction, as explained by Bengal's municipal affairs minister and Kolkata鈥檚 mayor, Firhad Hakim. While the self-assessment system allows property owners to declare their property details, it comes with stringent checks. Failure to submit self-assessment returns within the designated time frame or intentional suppression of property details will be considered deliberate concealment of facts. Any misrepresentation or inaccuracies in self-declarations will lead to a penalty of 30 per cent of the property tax. Atin Ghosh, an MLA and deputy mayor of KMC, stated that the provision aims to discourage dishonest declarations and ensure accurate tax compliance. He further explained that the valuation of properties would be determined using multiplicative factors applied to base unit area values, which consider factors such as location, property usage, building age, occupancy status, and other relevant characteristics for covered or vacant land. The valuation committee will set these factors on a point scale ranging from 0.5 to 8.0 to ensure fair and accurate assessments. According to Debobrata, this new framework also includes provisions for long-term valuation updates and represents a significant shift in West Bengal's property tax system, aimed at enhancing transparency, accountability, and revenue collection for municipal corporations.