UPA ministers prefer to keep I-T returns secret

The UPA government has been hit by a contradiction with four of its Union ministers disclosing their income tax returns while another three refusing triggering a debate on whether disclosing income details of top public servants are in public interest or not. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Nov 22, 2012, 13:18:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The UPA government has been hit by a contradiction with four of its Union ministers disclosing their income tax returns while another three refusing triggering a debate on whether disclosing income details of top public servants are in public interest or not.

India's information watchdog the Central Information Commission (CIC) on Thursday would aim to settle the debate on Thursday when it considers an appeal of a civil society group, Association of Democratic Rights, seeking income tax returns of three unwilling union ministers --- Sachin Pilot, Ajit Singh and Kumari Selja.

Anil Bairwal, national coordinator of the association had filed an RTI application with the Income Tax department, seeking income tax returns of a few Union cabinet ministers.

The department considered the information as of third party and as per the Right To Information Act sought permission of the ministers to provide information. None of them agreed.

"The information sought under the said RTI application relates to personal information, the disclosure of which has no relation to any public activity or interest," the department told Bairwal on basis of replies received from the three ministers.

Social justice and empowerment minister Selja said that public interest in disclosure out-weights in importance any possible harm or injury to the interest of assessee. Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh wanted to know why Bairwal needed such personal information and Pilot said the information under the RTI law cannot be divulged.

On other hand, three present cabinet ministers --- Ajay Maken, Subodh Kant Sahay, Pratik Prakashbapu Patil and one former minister Ambika Soni --- had voluntarily disclosed their income tax returns on the Prime Minister's website. Maken even offered to put income tax returns of his daughter in public domain.

However, the income department has also favoured the minister refusing to divulge the returns quoting an earlier CIC view that income tax returns are definitely personal information "Disclosure of assessment details may results in an undue invasion to the privacy of an individual," the CIC had said in 2008.

Bairwal in his appeal to the Supreme Court said the average increase in assets of MPs and MLAs as per declaration with the Election Commission has been very high --- 289% for Lok Sabha MPs and 300% for MLAs.

Only way for citizens to access their sources of income is income tax returns and disclosing it would result in more informed voters, therefore it is in "larger public interest", he has argued.

The CIC has issued notice to the Income Tax department asking why the appeal filed by Bairwal should not be considered.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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