KOLKATA: Come April, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will roll out a new unit-area based property tax regime for taxpayers taking a leap forward from the inspector raj. Under the new Unit Area Assessment (UAA) system, a citizen can calculate his own quarterly tax liability based on parameters already made public by the KMC. Civic officials expect the tax burden on citizens in general would be less in the new system because the KMC has fixed a much lower tax rate per square feet — 6% to 20% when tax rate in the existing system ranges from 11% to 40%. This is applicable for citizens living in apartments that attract the highest tax rate 40% under the existing system. From April, property tax calculations for flat owners would be simple. KMC will fix the tax based on the covered area of the flat owner and not on the apportioned share of the aggregated annual value of the entire apartment. The KMC will collect tax in the first quarter equal to what the citizens ha