Economic Times: New Delhi: Thursday, 26 September 2013.
Blanket ban
on records related to tax evasion cases is not the "best policy"
adopted by the investigation wing of the Income Tax department, the Central
Information Commission has said.
The case
related to one Ashok Kumar Gupta who had sought information related to action
taken on his letters in which he had alleged evasion of Income Tax.
Not giving
any information, the Income Tax department told him that the investigation
department is listed as an exempted organisation under section 24 of the RTI
Act.
Section 24
says "nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the intelligence and
security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations
established by the central government or any information furnished by such
organisations to that government."
However, the
information related the allegations of corruption and human rights violations
are excluded.
Information
Commissioner Rajiv Mathur said, "The Commission has been of the view that
though the Office of DGIT (Inv) is an exempted organisation, a blanket ban on
disclosure of information regarding action taken on a tax evasion petition is
not the best policy and that some sort of feedback should be provided to the
person who provides information."
He directed
the department to apprise Gupta of the broad outcome of the investigation, once
it is completed, without giving any specific details.
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