Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is the richest cabinet minister in UPA-II whereas Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee is among the poorest. The Prime Ministers' Office has provided details of assets and liabilities of 77 ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council, submitted for the first time under the Right to Information Act.
The ministers are required to submit details of their assets and liabilities to the Prime Minister's Office every year.
Getting the information was not easy for RTI activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal, who sought the information in January 2009. The PMO had initially refused, saying it was the ministers' private information and therefore, could not be shared under the law.
Chandra filed an appeal with the Central Information Commission, which overruled the PMO's decision last month asked its Public Information Officer Sanjukta Rat to seek the consent of individual ministers on revealing the information.
On Monday, the cabinet agreed to provide the data and by Thursday, it was delivered to Chandra.
"It is victory for transparency and honesty of the Prime Minister," he said.
Chandra also demanded that the annual details of assets and wealth of all Parliamentarians be put on a website to improve transparency in governance.
As per the data, the top ministers of UPA-II who have assets of more than Rs 1 crore include Home Minister P Chidambaram, Finance Minister S M Krishna, Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.