Building owners in Kochi asked to file property tax returns before January 21

Third attempt by corporation to introduce new property tax regime

The new tax regime will come into effect after March.

Owners of residential and commercial buildings in the city should file their property tax returns before January 21. The new tax regime will come into effect after March after the local body completing the computation.

The Secretary of the Kochi Corporation issued public notices to the owners of buildings on Wednesday asking them to file the returns before the deadline. This is the third attempt of the local body to introduce the new property tax regime in its territory. The self assessment forms should be submitted to the local body within 30 days of publishing the notice, said the announcement.

The owners of the buildings have been asked to carry out self-assessment of the tax. The forms, which have been distributed to the owners, have questions on the type of the building and proximity to different types of roads.

The tax structure, different zones in each area and the tax assessment patterns to be followed were notified earlier. The guidelines for filing the returns were incorporated in the application form distributed earlier. The forms can be obtained free of cost from the office of the local body, it said.

BPL families excluded

The houses of those residents who have been classified as Below Poverty Line and of area up to 30 sq metres have been excluded from filing the returns. The residents should also include details of any additional modifications made in the building outside the approved plan. Such modifications will be marked as “unauthorised” and later tax will be fixed for those modifications too.

B. Bhadra, Deputy Mayor of the Kochi Corporation, said that the officials of the local body will help the building owners to file the returns. The service of the officials can be obtained from the office of the local body. The officials of the local body will be deputed to local areas on demand from the residents’ associations, she said.

Database

The returns filed by the owners will be compared with the records available with the local body for fixing the tax. The civic body had already generated a database of both commercial and residential buildings in its territory. It is estimated that there are around 4,000 buildings in each of the 74 divisions of the corporation.