Windfall Profit Tax: In Search of Elusive Data

By mid-April, I had lost count of the number of times my RTI request had been kicked around like a football. Then, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), which had been contacted four times from different departments, sent identical replies that were strangely funny to say the least. First, CBEC said, all the information about the structure of excise duty imposed is available on its website. Then, it said, the kind of details I was seeking do not even constitute ‘information’ under the RTI Act. Surprisingly, it also claimed that it did not have such information and concluded in its reply that tax data per entity cannot be shared because it is held in fiduciary capacity (relationship based on trust) and disclosure would not be in ‘public interest’. So, do they have the information or not?