Income Tax return leaked, Information Commission orders inquiry
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has said there is a need to probe the leakage of confidential data filed by the tax payers and plug the loopholes after an RTI applicant complained his income tax returns were leaked.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the income tax department to investigate how “confidential” data of a Right To Information applicant’s tax return was given to a third party without his consent, exposing the possibility of personal income data of millions of tax payers getting leaked.
File picture of a tax official scrutinising a tax return form in New Delhi. The Central Information Commission has asked the IT department to probe how an RTI applicant’s tax returns were leaked to a third party. (AFP)
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“There is an emergent requirement to investigate the root cause of the leakage of confidential data filed by the tax payers and plug the loopholes forthwith. It is essential to protect the confidential financial data filed by millions of tax payers from falling into wrong hands in the larger public interest,” said information commissioner Bimal Julka in his order directing the Income Tax department to conduct an investigation.
Badal Satapathy, a resident of Bhubaneswar, told the commission that his income tax returns for financial years 2005 to 2011 were downloaded in 2012 and given to third party Lipipuspa Rozalina without his consent.
Satapathy claimed that he was threatened on the basis of the personal information leaked and he informed the income tax department about it but no action was taken.
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He then filed an RTI application with the IT department seeking reply on how the information was given without his consent and what legal action has been taken against the person(s) responsible for leaking his personal income details.
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He then filed an RTI application with the IT department seeking reply on how the information was given without his consent and what legal action has been taken against the person(s) responsible for leaking his personal income details.
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After not getting any response from the IT department even though his application was transferred 16 times to different wings, Satapathy filed an appeal with the information watchdog --- the CIC.
Satapathy told the commission that some “unscrupulous employees” of the department were selling highly confidential financial data of tax payers to third parties without their knowledge or any court orders.
Responding to his allegation, the income tax department said they were not aware whether any particular official has downloaded his income tax returns saying that creation of user identification and secrecy of data was responsibility of the regional computer centre. The department also said that they ordered an inquiry but failed to provide details of the investigations to the CIC.
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The commission expressed its dismay over the department’s reply saying they were “baffled” as it claims exemption from giving information on the ground that it belongs to third party. The commission cited several high court and Supreme Court orders to state that income tax returns were personal information and cannot be shared without consent of the tax payer.
“In the present case, the personal and confidential information is alleged to have been compromised and no satisfactory response regarding status of the investigation was provided,” the commission said while directing the Income Tax department to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within 30 days to the applicant.
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.
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