CIC looks to lift smog of LPG scam,HPCL demurs

HPCL does not want to reveal to whom it is offering subsidies.

The Central Information Commission has directed the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to make public the list of its consumers of commercial and domestic cooking gas connections.

Overruling arguments of the HPCL that the information is of “commercial confidence”,Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said information about concessions given by the government should be disclosed pro-actively by public authorities as mandated under the section four of the RTI Act.

“This is to ensure that all information regarding any subsidy or concession given by the government is widely known so that any possibility of selecting wrong beneficiaries or diverting,scarce and costly resources meant for certain class of people can be prevented,” Mishra said.

The case relates to RTI application filed by Kushi Ram of Hissar who sought to know domestic and commercial consumers of the LPG cooking gas. He said information was required as there were irregularities in the distribution of gas and lot of gas was being diverted illegally from domestic consumers to commercial ones.

The HPCL contended that they do not have the list and that information is held in commercial confidence,hence cannot be disclosed.

Mishra rejected the argument saying the point raised by HPCL that the information should be withheld because its of commercial confidence goes “against the letter and the spirit” of the transparency law.

He said the information may not be maintained by HPCL,but the company can certainly demand it from its distributors as per the norms of the RTI Act and provide it to the applicant.

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“The observation of the Respondent (HPCL) that disclosing the names of their customers would adversely affect the commercial interests of the company and could expose it to undesirable competition is not acceptable in the specific context of this case which relates to information relating to subsidy or concession provided to consumers,” Mishra said while directing the HPCL to give information in 10 days.