compuser1973,
Yes, quite.
This explanation is long. Although from your posts, I can make out that you will understand a very short explanation, since this is a public forum, many members or guests, who are not very familiar with the subject, might find a longer explanation interesting and easy to understand.
Let's come back to charges within India at the end of the post.
PREAMBLE:
1. I had decided not to post for some time on the forum and only visit
as a "guest" without logging in. But after I saw your post, I decided to
log in and reply. I will go back into "hibernation" mode after this and in
case you have any queries, you can email me on /myusername/ as on
this forum, at eth dot net (good way to beat bots and spiders).
2. I have never been an "Officer" nor any one in my family has ever been
one.
3. When I replied to your earlier post, I did not do any research, but
directly replied, since I was absolutely sure about what I was saying.
4. I am no
PIO of any PA, as defined in
RTI 2005, so I cannot be penalised
for any "incorrect" or "misleading" information. However, while helping or
guiding anyone, if I give wrong information, I will feel very guilty and
that will be more than enough "penalty" for me ! (He He He)
5. For this, I did 50 minutes of research and typing, but when I hit the
"submit reply" button, I was asked to log in again and lost the draft.
I have done that twice, so this third time, this is on notepad and while
copying and pasting, the formatting might be slightly skewed, so please
excuse.
FACTS/DATA/SOURCES:
1. The historical currency exchange rates are from:
FXHistory - Historical Currency Exchange Rates
2. The charges for passport services are directly form webistes of :
USA:
Embassy of India - Washington DC
UK:
Fee for PIO Card, Passport, Visa and Consular services, High Commission of India in London, Indian High Commission in United Kingdom
Australia:
Consulate General of India, Sydney
Japan:
INDIA (We call ourselves IT & Computer experts , but look, we can't even have a common normenclature for websites of our missions abroad. Anyone in MEA listening ? And, for the love of my life, I cannot understand, why the Indian Consulate website in Sydney has a picture of the Sydney Opera House on it !) 3. The last time, the Charges were changed, was 1st April 2002 (Yes Sir, 5 years ago !). This was from a website, which I cannot just seem to find again. It's with a red colour background, with white and yellow letters. Sorry, but for this information I cannot give you the link. But believe me the date is correct. BASIS:
1. For simplicity, only 2 "services" have been used for comaprison:
Ordinary Passport
Jumbo Passport
2. Only USA, UK, Australia and Japan have been used for comparison:
- Africa does not interest many people
- Latam and SE Asia have had too many currency upheavals
- East Europe/USSR have changed drastically and broken up
- European Currencies do not exist with the introduction of Euro.
3. Since the last time the charges were revised, was on 1st April 2002, the
exchange rates used are those prevailing between 1st March and 1st
April 2002. This is not a very correct thing to do in the Indian scenario.
Because I know of one instance very long long time ago, when the
decision to revise charges was implemented 2.5 years after it was
taken. For the purpose of this discussion, let's assume that the prevailing
exchange rate during March 2002 was the basis.
4. All foreign currencies are converted back to Indian Rupee (INR) instead
of direct conversion from GBP to US$ or AUS$ to JY, because our
Foreign Office Mandarins sit in South Block in New Delhi (or the old
Akbar Hotel in Chanakyapuri) and everything is always converted back
to INR.
EXPLANATION/PROOF:
The charges for the two services in the 4 countries, in local currency are;
ORDINARY JUMBO
USA US$ 40 US$ 50
UK GBP 27 GBP 34
Australia AUS$ 78 No info on website
Japan Y 5600 Y 7200
During March 2002, the exchange rates of various currencies against INR were:
US$ 50
GBP 70
Aus$ 21
Jap. Yen 0.38
I just took the "most frequent" appearing number on the table and omitted the decimals.
Now, if you multiply and see, the charges for the Ordinary will be about Rs 2000 and for the Jumbo will be Rs 2500. If there is a difference of a few hundred rupees here and there, its only because of the above "short cuts" I have used.
Therefore, charges for Indian Citizens, using Passport services in ANY country in the world are uniform.
compuser1973, our Indian "Officers" are very very diligent and carefully calculate even the last paise, when it comes to either
taking money from the citizens or
giving refund (which they do not give very easily !)
CHARGES BACK IN INDIA:
Although I know the explanation, I will not reveal.
I think you have never used
RTI before. Is that correct ?
If yes, why don't you use this oppurtunity to use
RTI for the first time and find out why the charges are different in India. You can send an application to
PIO of MEA or to the local
PIO in the Indian Embassy (in case you stay abroad). It will be a good experience and then you can guide others also in using
RTI with that experience.
Please share the outcome with the forum members and guests. I will keep reading. If the reply you get, is "incorrect" or "misleading", I will inform you, and then, you can also experience First Appeal, which can be made under section 18, 1 e.
Now, back to work.
Karira