KMC’s ambitious property tax system trips on IT glitch

KOLKATA: The unit location Assessment (UAA) machine, which the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had brought on April 1 amid large fanfare, is on the verge of crumble, courtesy an IT glitch.
Under the new system, which became a whole switchover from the condominium-primarily based calculation to accumulate tax, a belongings proprietor changed into given an opportunity to calculate the tax primarily based on the place, nature of his/her property and location and publish the equal online. But the net facility is mendacity defunct nearly three months after the brand new system turned into launch.
Sources within the KMC assessment branch showed that the civic frame was now not in a role to offer belongings owners to move for online submission of property details because of a software program failure. The choice to withhold the net facility was taken after KMC assessment department officers attempted to regulate a few errors found within the online utility of some property proprietors under the Gariahat assessment series branch workplace.”We wished IT support to modify some errors observed inside the application procedure when we had been denied get admission to achieve this a month in the past. The IT branch is making essential changes within the UAA software. But until now, I need to say that it’s been a whole software failure for which we have didn’t offer belongings proprietors the web services,” a KMC assessment branch professional said.
A worried civic management has sought help from IT professionals to remedy the crisis. In reality, the software glitch has made the civic pinnacle brass jittery as the response from the assesses has been very poor in absence of the net facility. According to a KMC revenue branch respectable, simplest 15,000 out of metropolis’s 7.Five lakh assesses have to this point applied for the UAA by means of filling up forms manually. Among them, simplest 5,000 have implemented from northern elements of the town. “This is not sufficient and we want to bring extra taxpayers below the new UAA method,” the reliable said.This aside, the civic authorities will want to resolve another trouble which could derail the UAA scheme. The KMC evaluation branch desires to amend rules for continuing with the new gadget. “We had delivered the brand new method on April 1 with a May 31 closing date. Now we can need a prison stamp to continue with it. We are within the procedure of amending rules, giving assets owners more time to use for the UAA,” a KMC authentic stated. The civic body has already extended the deadline for the UAA utility till August 30 through a notification issued by means of municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed.

Also, the civic government has organized camps to assist taxpayers in getting keep of the new device. KMC has additionally installation helpdesks at diverse assessment department offices and e-centres.
Understanding Property Curbs
‘Property curbs’ is nowadays a totally frequently heard term in wealth control area. Nations across Asia, which includes China, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore have carried out belongings curbs inside the recent years. Property curbs can be described as property guidelines set by means of the governments to cut down immoderate growth in property fees. Property curbs are also called as property tightening or cooling measures. The guidelines typically goal the residential sector. An immoderate boom in home fees can cause assets bubble and make housing unaffordable and out of attaining for a wide phase of the populace. When belongings bubble bursts, it typically has far reaching effects on the financial system. This is because the linkages among banking sector and property zone are normally sturdy, in the form of mortgage lending to domestic buyers and venture lending or production loans to builders.

Property tightening measures can be demand aspect measures or supply side measures. Demand side measures are centered on reducing speculative/funding call for, to be able to meet the fees. Some of the measures encompass i) lowering the provision of funding, ii) increasing the fee for loans, iii) growing the down charge on loans, iv) growing taxes which include property tax or capital profits tax, and iv) tightening eligibility criteria for home purchase. Funding availability can be tightened by means of not providing loans/mortgages for 2d or 1/3 domestic purchases. Further, even supposing loans are sanctioned, the preliminary down charge can be better and interest costs can be better. For example, the minimal down charge on the first domestic mortgage is 30% in China, whilst that on a 2nd home mortgage is 60% (70% in tier-1 towns including Beijing). Capital benefit tax hike impacts 2d-hand/secondary domestic market and controls speculative demand. An extreme form of curbs is to prevent an entire section of the populace from buying belongings. Non-locals (inside a particular city or us of a) can be barred from shopping for property. Hong Kong in October 2012 levied a fifteen% tax on assets purchases made with the aid of foreigners. Supply side measures goal to grow the delivery of homes for you to control fee profits. Some of those measures are i) increasing land the /availability for belongings improvement, ii) government growing low-cost houses for lower profits populace, and iii) imposing hefty fine/penalty on land hoarding (keeping land idle for a long term).

Whether belongings curbs are effective is the question. China delivered property curbs in 2010 and has been able to keep away from a belongings marketplace crash until now. Hong Kong implemented curbs in 2012, at the same time as Singapore and Indonesia imposed them in 2013. When price upward thrust is because of a shortage of land and housing, like within the case of Hong Kong, demand aspect rules might not be powerful, except they are stricter regulations inclusive of banning sure population from purchasing home. Compared to call for facet measures, supply side measures take a longer time to have any impact on the belongings markets. Property acts as an investment or garage of wealth, whilst family savings price is excessive, deposit rates are low and there may be a lack of funding channels. In such a scenario, measures tightening the mortgage market won’t have a substantial impact, as domestic consumers fund purchases out of their savings and do not rely on mortgages. Other measures such as allowing alternative investment options can also divert investment far away from belongings and incorporate funding demand.