Indian immigrants, settled in Britain, have protested against what they say is an “arbitrary'' fee they are required to pay when surrendering their Indian passports after becoming British citizens.
They have also alleged confusion over the way the decision to reduce the fee is being applied resulting in some people being charged more than what they believe they owed and are demanding a refund.
Officials at the Indian High Commission, however, denied any confusion and offered to look into specific cases.
The confusion, apparently, is about the cut-off date from which the reduced fee is applicable.
While the High Commission sources insist that it is applicable only to those who acquired British nationality before May 31, 2005, the campaign group, Highly-Skilled Migrant Forum (HSMP), points out that the Commission's website gives the cut-off date as May 31, 2010.
The website says: “Person of Indian Origin who have already acquired foreign citizenship till 31.05.2010 ….will now have to pay £14 [pound fourteen] only towards Miscellaneous service charge and would not be required to any fee under Citizenship Act. However, those Indian citizens who acquire foreign citizenship from 1.6.2010 onwards will have to pay Rs.7,000/- (to be collected in local currency at official rate of exchange fixed by Government of India from time to time) along with a declaration of renunciation of their Indian Citizenship.''
Amit Kapadia, executive director of the Forum, said it was clear that recent reduction in fees to £14 was applicable to those who obtained British nationality before May 31, 2010. Yet many such people had been “unfairly charged'' the old fee of £102.
Raghav Upadhyay, who applied to surrender his and his family's passports on June 1, said he had written to the High Commission demanding a refund. He said he and his family got their British citizenship before May 31, 2010 but were charged the old rate of £102.
“When I read the news that for those who attained British nationality prior to 31/5/10 the fee was reduced to £ 14 per person it was a matter of great dismay for me as all four applications submitted by me have attained naturalization prior to this date and we have paid £ 88 per person i.e. a total of £352 in excess of the current fees,'' he said.
The Forum questioned the very basis of a “surrender fee'' with Mr Kapadia calling it a bid to “penalise Indian nationals opting for foreign citizenship''.
Officials said they had nothing to do with the fee. It was fixed by the government and they were simply implementing the decision.
