Details of all donations made eligible for tax relief under section 80G of the IT Act
26 Apr, 2013
Background
The appellant filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) seeking details of all trusts, organizations, societies etc., donations made to which are eligible for tax relief under section 80G of the Income Tax (IT) Act. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed that no such list was maintained by them and the data relating to charitable entity was available on the departmental web site. The appellant filed the first appeal stating that he was unable to find out the details of charitable institutions on the departmental website. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) directed the PIO to forward a screen print of the web page of the departmental web site clearly indicating the link for exempt institutions.
Proceedings
During the hearing the before Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant submitted that the data on the website cannot be accessed until the full name of the organization, PAN number, IT Circle and other details are fed in. As this information is not available to the common citizen, he cannot access the desired data. The appellant further referred to a full bench decision of the CIC (CIC/LS/A/2009/00190) dated 9.3.2010 in which the CBDT had been requested to make suo-motu disclosure on the website of organisations exempted and alleged that these orders of the CIC have not been implemented by the CBDT.
View of CIC
The Commission referred to its three Bench decision [appeal no. CIC/LS/A/2009/00190] wherein it was ordered that the identity of the charitable trusts/ institutions/ entities which have been granted exemption from income tax under section 10 & under section 11/12 of the Income Tax Act should be placed in public domain by way of suo-motu disclosure by the CBDT in terms of section 4(1)(b)
Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,-
(i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties;
(ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees;
(iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability;
(iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions;
(v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions;
(vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control;
(vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof;
(viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public;
(ix) a directory of its officers and employees;
(x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
(xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
(xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes;
(xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it;
(xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form;
(xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use;
(xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers;
(xvii) such other information as may be prescribed and thereafter update these publications every year;
read with section 4(2)
It shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of sub-section (1) to provide as much information suo motu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.
of the RTI Act. Looking into the magnitude of the work involved, the Commission had granted a time of 8 months and had directed the Chairman, CBDT, to send a compliance report to the Commission after 8 months. The Commission directed the PIO (Deputy Secretary), CBDT, New Delhi, to ascertain the factual position about the implementation of the above decision and send a report to the Commission
Citation: Mr. Sandeep Kumar Gupta v. CBDT and Department of Revenue in File No. CIC/DS/A/2012/000688/RM
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1227
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission