IMD Official Gets Notice and Penalty for Charging GST on RTI Request

An employee in the India Meteorological Department (IMD-Mumbai) has been slapped a fine of Rs 1,000. The reason stated for the fine was that the official upheld important information against an RTI filed by an activist. Reportedly, the official in-charge of the RTI cell of IMD- Mumbai was even levying GST on the information available under the RTI Act. Further to compensate for the harassment caused, CIC directed IMD to pay the RTI applicant a token amount of Rs 500 within 15 days.

Following the recent thunderstorms that killed over 100 people in the country, on September 9, 2017, one Mr Chetan Kothari filed an RTI seeking details on the warnings/ red alerts issued by IMD. Reportedly Mr Chetan had asked the IMD about details of the places for which warning/alerts pertaining to heavy rain, earthquakes, cyclones, storms, etc were issued by the department. In addition to the above, Mr Chetan also wanted to know the number of occasions when such warnings were proven to be true.

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In Mr Chetan’s own words, ”When I cleared my position through an email on November 2, 2017, he told me to deposit Rs 5,808, including Rs 886 for GST in advance, as the information was voluminous. I was shocked when told to deposit GST as it never fell under the ambit of either goods or services.”

The IMD official was later issued a show-cause notice. In the order passed on February 5, The CIC clearly states that demanding GST was illegal and unreasonable. The order also states that agreed penalty must be recovered by July 10 from the official in question.