Times of India: Aurangabad: Thursday, August 30, 2018.
The Union government has kept the
online RTI service out of the purview of GST. Even so, the Maharashtra
government continues to charge central and state GST on applications filed
under the RTI Act, 2005 through the web portal.
Applicants filing RTI query through
the state portal have to pay Rs 10 towards fees using online gateway
(https://rtionline.maharashtra.gov.in) along with extra 90 paise due to
application of GST in Maharashtra. The central portal https://rtionline.gov.in/
does not charge GST.
A senior official from the State
General Administration Department (GAD) said efforts undertaken for excluding
RTI from GST regime proved futile so far.
“We approached the central and state
agencies concerned to resolve the issue. However, technical issues could not be
solved. Therefore, Mahaonline , a state agency and the National Informatics
Centre (NIC), a central agency, have continued to charge separate GST in 5%
bracket,” he said, preferring anonymity.
Administrative authorities from the
State Information Commission did not wish to comment on the matter. “Our
mandate is to entertain second appeal made under the RTI Act and deliver
information to applicants. The issue of charging of GST does not come under our
purview,” a desk officer said, asking that he not be named.
Since the enactment of RTI Act, the
number of applications received under the transparency legislation has been
increasing every year. While a total 1.23 lakh applications were received in
2006, the number had increased to 6.84 lakh by the end of 2016, the annual
report of the State Information Commission shows. This includes applications
received through the online portal.
Civic activists have demanded that the
state government undertake proactive measures to take online RTI services out
of the ambit of GST. “It is ridiculous that such glaring disparity still
exists. While charging tax for service like RTI itself sounds absurd, the
anomaly at the implementation level at two different stages of the government
is beyond the understanding of the common RTI user,” said activist Omprakash
Varma.
An official mail to the GAD seeking
clarification of the matter remained unanswered till Wednesday night.
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