RECEIVING SUBSIDY FROM THE GOVT. DOES NOT BRING THE SOCIETY UNDER THE DEFINITION OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY : Central Information Commission (CIC): Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) is a Multi State Cooperative Society registered under the Multi State Cooperative Act, 2002 and is not covered under the definition of “public authority” under section 2(h) of the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission has held. The court dismissed an appeal filed by RTI activist, Subhash Chandra Agrawal which sought information regarding IFFCO on the ground that the Central Govt. had high financial stakes in the paid up share capital and IFFCO is getting huge amount of subsidy from the Central Government. While rejecting the contention of the appellant, CIC said that Union government had high financial stakes in the paid-up share capital till 2004 but does not have any stake at present as it remitted the capital in that year. “ It is, no doubt, true that IFFCO is getting huge amount of subsidy from the Central Govt. but, in our opinion, it is not unique to IFFCO; subsidy is also being given to private sector players. The provisioning of subsidy is to keep the sale price of fertilizers low in the open market so as to keep it within the reach of farmers. Subsidy is not a grant. It is only a mechanism to pay the difference between the cost of production and the sale price of fertilizers. We, therefore, hold that subsidy cannot be construed as substantial financing of IFFCO”, the court added. (Subhash Chandra Agrawal v. Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd., [2013] CIC 12094, decided on August 05, 2013)
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:33:40 +0000
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