Calcutta, July 2: The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has decided to seek the opinion of citizens before fixing property tax, stung by a Supreme Court order on Salt Lake.

The government will amend the West Bengal Central Valuation Board Act in the ongoing Assembly session.

The amendment will empower all municipalities — except the Calcutta Municipal Corporation — to conduct “objection hearings” before finalising the property tax. The CMC has a different way of calculating tax.

The Salt Lake Welfare Association had moved Calcutta High Court against the Bidhannagar municipality’s move to increase property tax “arbitrarily” in September 1998.

The residents’ body challenged the new valuation system, saying the tax rate had rocketed because of faulty assessment carried out by casual employees.

Moreover, the process of collecting Form 3, a declaration on the particulars of a house, was not complied with. Form 3 has to have the landlord’s signature before it is accepted by the municipality.

A high court single bench set aside the new tax structure but a division bench restored it. The Salt Lake residents then went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the single bench order scrapping the tax structure.

The department will now be forced to hold “objection hearings”. It will have to place the draft valuation before the residents and seek their comments.

Officials said the municipality had a provision for conducting such hearings earlier but it was done away with.