Information pertaining to a housing loan & why difference interest rates was charged from the appellant on the supplementary loan - CIC directed the PIO to provide the date & circular no., guidelines/ circular on the basis of which calculation was made
30 Apr, 2016Date of Decision : January 27, 2016
ORDER
1. The appellant Shri Jawahar Thakur submitted RTI application dated 22.04.2015 to the Central Public Information Officer, United India Insurance Company, Patna seeking information pertaining to housing loan no. 2451, action taken report on his applications dated 10.10.2013,22.10.2014, 22.01.2015 & 25.03.2015, why difference interest rates are charged from him on the supplementary loan, why his amount of Rs. 25000/- was not converted from supplemental loan to scheme loan automatically when on 1.9.2002 scheme loan amount was increased from Rs 2.5 Lakhs to Rs 2.75 Lakhs etc. through 5 points.
2. The CPIO, vide letter dated 13.05.2015, intimated with reference that all applications were referred to HO, that supplementary interest rate was reduced to 7.5% from October 2002 as per guidelines, etc. Dissatisfied with the response of the CPIO, the appellant filed an appeal before the appellate authority (FAA) on 20.5.2015. The FAA vide order dated 16.06.2015 concurred with the decision of the CPIO. Thereafter, dissatisfied with the decision of the respondents, the appellant approached the Commission on 26.06.2015 with a request to provide information as he had not been given any satisfactory reply.
3. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant stated that the rate of interest on the housing loan taken by him was on the higher side and he had a complaint regarding this. He also stated that the interest on loan taken by others was being charged at lesser rate as compared to his case and he had not been supplied the conversion of his loan into scheme loan. The respondents stated that they had referred all his applications to the HO and the information received from them was the basis of the response given by them to the appellant. They had charged the rate of interest as per the guidelines available with them and sent point wise information. However, the appellant could provide a copy of the calculations made by him to enable them to understand the matter more clearly. The appellant also mentioned a circular dated 28.2.2003, according to which the conversion of supplementary loan into scheme loan was to be automatic.
4. The Commission directs the CPIO to provide the date and the circular no., guidelines/ circular/instructions based on which they had intimated the appellant that the increase of scheme loan from Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 2.75 lakh was neither automatic nor retrospective and was applicable to employees whose offer was open and who had not completed the construction, within ten days of the receipt of the order of the Commission. While providing information keeping the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 comes within its purview, it does not provide any mandate for resolution of grievance. The appellant may like to approach an appropriate forum, i.e. Insurance Ombudsman for the resolution of his grievance. The appeal is disposed of.
(Manjula Prasher)
Information Commissioner
Citation: Shri Jawahar Thakur v. United India Insurance Co Ltd, in Appeal No. CIC/MP/A/2015/001520