Expense Estimates

The Corpus/Capital Base

Please note that excess over expenses goes towards building up a corpus; the income from the corpus to be used for ongoing Trust activities. As Trust activities expand, the requirement may increase.

Note that the Trust has an expense policy in place with upper limits for travel, stay, local conveyance etc.

The primary components of Year 1 (April 2006 - March 2007) expenses were:

The Case

Expenses on the case were primarily legal fees and travel costs.Trustees and volunteers attended every hearing. This proved invaluable in keeping all parties motivated, ensuring the case stayed on track, and the media's continued coverage.

The award

Manjunath’s bravery and honesty went unrewarded while he lived. The trust honours one person or organisation a year in his name, to encourage them in life. The award amount plus costs were about Rs. 1.5 lakhs. Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy Ltd. sponsored the Award plus some costs for the years 2007 & 2008.

RTI Act Helpline

The Helpline, with a vision of encouraging use of the RTI Act across India, ran for a year.A professional call center with trained executives offering multiple language support was hired. Six months later, Mphasis BPO offered a 50% subsidy, bringing down the cost to Rs. 70,000 p.m. After one year of functioning, in November 2007, a decision was taken that the cost-benefit did not justify continuation of the Helpline. The model was changed to a decentralised one, funding local RTI activists to run a helpline resulting in strong local knowledge, total commitment and lower costs.

Trust administration

While most of the costs are being absorbed by the managing trustees - we use our own office staff and infrastructure - yet, incidental costs add up to about Rs. 3,000 p.m. or about Rs. 36,000 p.a.

Year 2 (April 2007 - March 2008) and ongoing:

The FYE March 2008 saw an almost 100% drop in case related expenses. All the convicts were in jail, and thought they filed appeals as early as May 2007, they kept missing their own hearings and postponing the process.However as on date, the appeal hearings have re-started (Dec '08) and Trustees have already made a trip to Lucknow. Once court reopens in January 2009 after winter break, activity will start full steam, and multiple trips will occur, as also legal fees.

The second Award was presented in March 2008, with similar expenses as in 2007 and sponsorship of the same as mentioned. Work goes on for the third Award to be presented in Mar/April 2009. The sponsorship has now moved to A Little World Private Ltd., a path-breaking micro banking company which is also helping with its distribution network, to spread the word.

From March 2008, we have been funding Kabir, a Delhi based NGO. One employee's salary plus costs are covered by this donation of Rs. 12,500 p.m. The employee, an RTI activist has shown excellent results and helps between 200-300 callers per month.

Note :

1.There is an independent audit of Trust accounts every year. Audits for both the FYE 2007 & 2008 have been completed and tax returns filed. The Trust has sec 12 (A) exemption from paying taxes, but we do file returns.

2. If the trust is wound up, per the IT Act, the funds cannot be given back to the donors; they need to be rolled over to another trust registered under the IT Act, having similar objectives.


The Corpus/Capital Base Please note that excess over expenses goes towards building up a corpus; the income from the corpus to be used for ongoing Trust activities. As Trust activities expand, the requirement may increase. Note that the Trust has an expense policy in place with upper limits for travel, stay, local conveyance etc. The primary components of Year 1 (April 2006 - March 2007) expenses were: The Case Expenses on the case were primarily legal fees and travel costs.Trustees and volunteers attended every hearing. This proved invaluable in keeping all parties motivated, ensuring the case stayed on track, and the media's continued coverage. The award Manjunath’s bravery and honesty went unrewarded while he lived. The trust honours one person or organisation a year in his name, to encourage them in life. The award amount plus costs were about Rs. 1.5 lakhs. Kerala Ayurveda Pharmacy Ltd. sponsored the Award plus some costs for the years 2007 & 2008. RTI Act Helpline The Helpline, with a vision of encouraging use of the RTI Act across India, ran for a year.A professional call center with trained executives offering multiple language support was hired. Six months later, Mphasis BPO offered a 50% subsidy, bringing down the cost to Rs. 70,000 p.m. After one year of functioning, in November 2007, a decision was taken that the cost-benefit did not justify continuation of the Helpline. The model was changed to a decentralised one, funding local RTI activists to run a helpline resulting in strong local knowledge, total commitment and lower costs. Trust administration While most of the costs are being absorbed by the managing trustees - we use our own office staff and infrastructure - yet, incidental costs add up to about Rs. 3,000 p.m. or about Rs. 36,000 p.a. Year 2 (April 2007 - March 2008) and ongoing: The FYE March 2008 saw an almost 100% drop in case related expenses. All the convicts were in jail, and thought they filed appeals as early as May 2007, they kept missing their own hearings and postponing the process.However as on date, the appeal hearings have re-started (Dec '08) and Trustees have already made a trip to Lucknow. Once court reopens in January 2009 after winter break, activity will start full steam, and multiple trips will occur, as also legal fees. The second Award was presented in March 2008, with similar expenses as in 2007 and sponsorship of the same as mentioned. Work goes on for the third Award to be presented in Mar/April 2009. The sponsorship has now moved to A Little World Private Ltd., a path-breaking micro banking company which is also helping with its distribution network, to spread the word. From March 2008, we have been funding Kabir, a Delhi based NGO. One employee's salary plus costs are covered by this donation of Rs. 12,500 p.m. The employee, an RTI activist has shown excellent results and helps between 200-300 callers per month. Note : 1.There is an independent audit of Trust accounts every year. Audits for both the FYE 2007 & 2008 have been completed and tax returns filed. The Trust has sec 12 (A) exemption from paying taxes, but we do file returns. 2. If the trust is wound up, per the IT Act, the funds cannot be given back to the donors; they need to be rolled over to another trust registered under the IT Act, having similar objectives.