Mayor wants city to be run by KMC, KMDA

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has advised the government that the city of Kolkata should have only two development agencies "" KMC and KMDA.

At present, there were a large number of agencies meddling in the city, including Hoogly River Bridge Commissioner, Calcutta Port Trust, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) and Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corporation.

"Overlapping jurisdiction has been a problem for us and we are blamed by the general public for non-maintenance of areas under control by other authorities. We have asked the state government to allow us along with KMDA the responsibility of maintaining Kolkata," said Subrata Mukherjee, mayor of the city at an interactive session organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).

The mayor also said KMC was in the process of simplifying the procedure of paying trade license fees as well as property tax.

"We are trying to make both these self-compliant and voluntary. We would divide KMC jurisdiction for property tax and various types of property "" owners will calculate their tax accordingly and deposit in banks designated by us," he explained.

"The method of calculation would be a straight forward formula which anyone would be able to calculate and pay their taxes," he added.

KMC has entered into agreement with as many as 10 banks for tax and license deposit facilities. "We are talking to a number of other banks and would tie-up with few more soon," he said.

As of now, as much as 35 per cent of property owners do not pay any kind of tax "" we are trying to change the system and would like to bring them under the tax net while at the same time reducing the tax rates for both domestic as well as commercial taxes.

At present as much as 55 per cent of the Kolkata's population paying for services. Around 44 per cent of the population lived in slums.

"We are trying to solve the problem through a mechanism," he added.