Indian Express: Coimbatore: Wednesday, May 23, 2018.
Petitioners
of Right To Information (RTI) Act are now being asked to pay Goods and Service
Tax (GST) for seeking copies of the documents. This came to light when an
activist was asked to pay 18 percent GST Rs 180
to get photocopy of documents at the cost of Rs 1,000 by Tamil Nadu
Housing Board.
In reply to V
Gopalakrishnan, a Chennai-based petitioner who sought the details under the
RTI, the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB)
asked him to pay the amount with GST for getting the document. He wanted
details of a land in K K Nagar in Chennai and filed a RTI petition with the
Board on April 10.
In response,
the PIO of TNHB asked him to remit total of Rs 1,180 for the document on May
10.V Gopalakrishnan said that the Board demanded the tax without having proper
knowledge of the RTI and GST.“As per the National Consumer Forum’s rule and the
Supreme Court’s order, the petitioner of RTI does not come under Consumer Act
since he is not an accommodate of goods and service in it. Also, as per our
thorough checking, the Public Administration and Reforms Department, which is
the authority liable for issuing such Government Order regard slapping of GST
for RTI, has not released any such order,” he said.
The demand of
GST from the petitioner under RTI was a wrongful one and he is prepared for
further appeal. When asked about this, a senior official of State GST Office,
said, “Since, there is no transaction of selling and buying in the RTI, the GST
is not applicable to it. If it was slapped, it definitely is a wrongful one.”