Central Information Commission
Rajat Mittal vs Department Of Revenue on 13 March, 2025
केन्द्रीय सूचना आयोग
Central Information Commission
बाबा गंगनाथ मागग, मुननरका
Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
नई निल्ली, New Delhi - 110067
File No: CIC/CBECE/C/2023/647056
CIC/DOREV/A/2024/605690
Rajat Mittal ....निकायतकताग /Complainant
.....अपीलकताग /Appellant
VERSUS
बनाम
1. CPIO,
Central Board of Indirect
Taxes and Customs, Room No
244-C, North Block, New Delhi - 110001.
2. CPIO,
GST Council Secretariat,
5th Floor, Tower II, Jeevan Bharti
Building, Connaught Place,
New Delhi - 110 001. ....प्रनतवािीगण /Respondents
Date of Hearing : 10.03.2025
Date of Decision : 12.03.2025
INFORMATION COMMISSIONER : Vinod Kumar Tiwari
The above-mentioned Complaint and Second Appeal are clubbed together
for decision through common order as these are filed by the same applicant.
CIC/CBECE/C/2023/647056
Relevant facts emerging from complaint:
RTI application filed on : 28.03.2023
CPIO replied on : 28.04.2023
Page 1 of 7
First appeal filed on : 26.05.2023
First Appellate Authority's order : 05.06.2023
2nd Appeal/Complaint dated : 03.10.2023
Information sought:
The Complainant filed an RTI application dated 28.03.2023 (offline) seeking the following information:
"Please refer to Notification No. 19/2008 - CE dated 27.03.2008, Notification No. 34/2008 - CE dated 10.06.2008 and Notification No. 52/2008 CE dated 03.10.2008 (collectively, "Amendment Notifications") whereby the Notification No. 56/2002 CE dated 14.11.2002 ("Exemption Notification") was amended to provide that benefit of refund under the Exemption Notification would be granted with reference to value addition, which was notionally fixed at a prescribed percentage for different goods.
In this regard, please provide the following information/documents:
1. What was the criteria adopted to come up with the particular rate of value addition for goods other than those mentioned under the said notifications?
2. What was the criteria adopted to come up with the particular rate of value addition for the following goods?
Chapter of the Description of Goods Rate
First Schedule
25 Cement 75%
25 Cement Clinker 75%
33 All Goods 56%
40 Tyres, Tubes and Flaps 41%
74 All Goods 15%
18 Cocoa Butter or Powder 75%
Any other chapter Goods other than those mentioned in Sl. 36% No. 1 to 15
3. Please provide all official noting, correspondences, background material, other relevant information/documents/minutes of meetings & discussions whereby the rates for cement & ferro alloys were fixed?"
The CPIO furnished a reply to the complainant on 28.04.2023 stating as under:
Page 2 of 7"2. Regarding point nos. 1 & 2 It is informed that the information sought by you cannot be called information as defined in Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005. Only information available in material form as defined in Section 2(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 can be provided under RTI Act 2005. Further under the RTI Act 2005 the CPIO is not required to give the interpretation/clarification of law/Notifications/Circulars etc. 1 find that the Chief Information Commissioner in his Order dated 21st April, 2006 vide F. No. CIC/AT/A/2006/00045 has held that-
The RTI Act does not cast on the public authority any obligation to answer queries, as in this case, in which a petitioner attempts to elicit answers to his questions with prefixes, such as, why, what, when and whether. The petitioner's right extends only to seeking information as defined in Section 2 (f) either by pinpointing the file, document, paper or record, etc., or by mentioning the type of information as may be available with the specified public authority.
3. As regard to point no.3 The information sought cannot be provided in light of clause (d) of sub-section (1) of section 8 of the RTI Act, 2005"
Being dissatisfied, the complainant filed a First Appeal dated 26.05.2023. The FAA vide its order dated 05.06.2023, held as under:
"The CPIO has been directed to provide the desired information."
In compliance of FAA's order, the CPIO furnished a revised reply to the complainant on 12.06.2023 stating as under:
Please refer to the First Appeal Application No. CBECEIA/E/23/00102 dated 26.05.2023 filed under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 before Shri Sanjay Kumar, First Appellate Authority and Director(CX.) against reply F.No.224/07/2023-CX.6 dated 28.04.2023.
2 In this regard, it is informed that the undersigned has received a letter FNO.224/24/2023-CX.6 dated 05.06.2023 from Shri Sanjay Kumar, First Appellate Authority and Director(CX.) enclosing therein your first appeal dated 26.05.2023 along with directions to provide information sought by you in RTI application dated 28.03.2023.
3. It may kindly be noted that Notification nos. 56/2002-CE dated 14.11.2002, 19/2008-CE dated 27.03.2008 and 34/2008-CE dated 10.06.2008 were issued by Tax Research Unit (TRU), Department of Page 3 of 7 Revenue, CBIC, North Block, New Delhi and not by Central Excise Wing of CBIC, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi. Therefore, the desired information is not held by the CPIO(CX/ST). Accordingly, your RTI application is being transferred to CPIO & TO (TRU-D), CBIC, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi in terms of Section 6(3) of the RTI, Act, 2005 with request to provide the desired information directly to the applicant, if any.
4. However, notification no.52/2008-CX dated 03.10.2008 was issued by Central Excise Wing of CBIC, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi from F.No.101/18/2008-CX-3 but the said file being very old is not readily available.
5. Regarding your query no.1 & 2 wherein in criteria has been asked for value addition, it may be noted that the area based exemption scheme was modified w.e.f. 01.04.2008 to describe the value addition after taking into account all India ratio of duty paid of PLA (cash duty) vis-&-vis total duty paid for previous two financial years. A manufacturer gets a refund on the basis of value addition rate prescribed by the Government or based upon actual value addition data (Special Rate). available.
It was represented by some of the industries that as they use non-excisable inputs. the formula for calculation of value addition prescribed in the Notification is disadvantageous to them because they were not in a position to buy the inputs on duty paid invoices. Therefore, even though they were required to pay a high proportion of duty in cash, but the refund was restricted to much lower amount. In order to provide relief to such industries, a higher value addition rate (which means a higher refund) has been prescribe for industries which uses natural products/mineral products which are non-excisable by making suitable amendments in the notifications on 10.06.2008 and 03.10.2008. List of such items are following:
i) Cement from lime stone and gypsum (w.e.f. 03.10.2008).
(ii) Cement clinker from lime stone (w.e.f. 03.10.2008).
(iii) Chapter 33 All goods from any goods (w.e.f. 10.06.2008).
(iv) Tyre Tube Flap under ch.40 from any goods (w.e.f. 10.06.2008).
(v) Chapter 74 All goods from any goods (w.e.f 10.06.2008).
(vi) Coco butter or powder from coco-beans (w.e.f. 10.06.2008).
(vii) Any chapter goods other than those mentioned at Sr.No.1 to 15 of table in Notification No.34/2008-CE dated 10.06.2008.Page 4 of 7
Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied, complainant approached the Commission with the instant Complaint.
CIC/DOREV/A/2024/605690 Relevant facts emerging from appeal:
RTI application filed on : 12.09.2023 CPIO replied on : 18.09.2023 First appeal filed on : 20.10.2023
First Appellate Authority's order : 20.11.2023 2nd Appeal/Complaint dated : 10.02.2024 Information sought:
The Appellant filed an RTI application dated 12.09.2023 (online) seeking the following information:
"Whether the decisions of the GST Council taken during the 50th and 51st GST Council meeting pertaining to online gaming and casinos will be implemented prospectively or retrospectively or retroactively?"
The CPIO furnished a reply to the Appellant on 18.09.2023 stating as under:
"Agenda points and Minutes of the proceedings of the 50th and 51st GST Council Meetings are recorded in minutes of the meeting. The Minutes of the 50th and 51st GST Council Meetings are awaiting approval of Competent Authority. On such approval, the Minutes of the said meetings shall be disclosed suo-moto in public domain at http://www.gstcouncil.gov.in. Before approval, the draft minutes of the 50th and 51st GST Council Meeting cannot be disclosed at this point of time under Section 8(1)(i) of the Right to Information Act. 2005.
However, gist of outcome of the 50th and 51st GST Council Meeting is available in public domain in form of a Press Release dated 11.07.2023 & 02.08.2023 at the link:-https://pib.gov.in/Press ReleasePage.aspx? PRID=1938812 and https://pib.gov.in/Press ReleasePage.aspx? PRID=1945208."
Being dissatisfied, the appellant filed a First Appeal dated 20.10.2023. The FAA vide its order dated 20.11.2023, upheld the reply of CPIO with the following findings:
Page 5 of 7"...6. I have carefully gone through the available records, i.e. information sought by the Appellant vide RTI Application dated 12.09.2023; reply dated 21.09.2023 given by the CPIO and RTI Appeal dated 20.10.2023.
7. As regard CPIO's reply for the RTI application, I find that the CPIO has provided the correct information as available at the time of replying to the said RTI. The said agenda pertaining to the online gaming and casinos was discussed in the 50th and 51st meeting of the GST Council and the detailed deliberations on the said agenda were recorded in minutes of the meeting. However, it is observed that the minutes of the 50th and 51st meeting of the GST Council were in the process of approval and were not available in public domain at the time of reply being given by the CPIO. This fact has been clearly brought out by the CPIO in his reply dated 21/09/2023 to the subject RTI.
7.1 Now, post approval as per extant process, all agenda items of 50th and 51st meetings which were placed before the GST Council and corresponding minutes proceedings/decisions are available in public domain at website www.gstcouncil.gov.in. These are standard process that the decision taken during the meeting are implemented on or after meeting for which the separate notification/circular are issued by the CBIC. The decisions pertaining to online gaming and casinos in the said meetings were given effect through CBIC notification no. 51/2023- Central Tax dated 29/09/2023 which was made effective prospectively from 01/10/2023. These details were informed to the applicant during the course of personal hearing to his satisfaction."
Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied, appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.
Relevant Facts emerged during Hearing:
The following were present:-
Complainant/Appellant: Represented by Shri Suprateek Neogi, Advocate present in person.
Respondent No. 1: Ms. Lavanya Gupta, Dy. Commissioner/CPIO along with Dr. Debjyoti Barman, Dy. Commissioner/CPIO, CBIC/TRU present in person.
Respondent No. 2: Ms. Swati Nokhwal, Dy. Commissioner/CPIO, GST Council present in person.Page 6 of 7
The written submission of the Respondent No. 2 is taken on record.
The Commission is in receipt of a letter dated 10.03.2025 from the Appellant/Complainant wherein he expressed his desire to withdraw the instant cases, which is taken on record.
Decision:
The Commission, after adverting to the facts and circumstances of the cases and considering the averred submission of the Complainant/Appellant that he wishes to withdraw the instant cases, dismisses the instant cases as withdrawn.
The Complaint and appeal are dismissed as withdrawn.
Vinod Kumar Tiwari (विनोद कुमार वििारी) Information Commissioner (सूचना आयुक्त) Authenticated true copy (अनिप्रमानणत सत्यानपत प्रनत) (S. Anantharaman) Dy. Registrar 011- 26181927 Date Copy To:
The FAA Department of Revenue, Room No 255, North Block, New Delhi - 110001.Page 7 of 7
Recomendation(s) to PA under section 25(5) of the RTI Act, 2005:-
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