METHODOLOGY

How the numbers are calculated

SarkariCost keeps official government fees separate from anonymous user-reported spending. A user report never becomes an “official fee”. Official fees are shown only when an administrator has attached a verifiable source URL.

What “most commonly reported” means

Accepted reports from the last 12 months are grouped into sensible price bands. The band with the most reports is shown as the most commonly reported range. We call it a “majority” only when more than 50% of accepted reports fall in that band.

Minimum sample size

We do not show a headline typical amount until at least five accepted reports exist for the selected location. Fewer than 20 reports is marked low confidence, 20–99 is moderate confidence, and 100 or more is high confidence.

Location

State-level reports are kept separate. If you select “All India”, the result combines accepted reports across India and should not be treated as a state-specific price. District and office/area fields are optional and appear only as contextual information.

Payment categories

• Official / receipt: money the reporter says was an official or receipted payment.
• CSC / service fee: facilitation or Common Service Centre charges.
• Agent fee: an agent or intermediary charge reported by the user.
• Paid without receipt: money the reporter says was paid without receiving a receipt. This wording does not, by itself, allege bribery or wrongdoing.
• Other: other direct costs the reporter chose to include.

Spam and manipulation

Reports pass a Cloudflare Turnstile check, rate controls, duplicate checks, input validation, and a basic risk score. Suspicious reports are held for moderation rather than affecting public statistics immediately. The permanent report record does not store the submitter's raw IP address or browser identifier.

Comments

Comments are never made public automatically. They are reviewed separately. Users are instructed not to identify employees or include phone numbers, email addresses, Aadhaar numbers, or other personal contact details.

Limitations

Crowdsourced data can be incomplete, biased, or wrong. SarkariCost is a transparency aid, not a fee quotation. Always verify the current official fee and process with the relevant government authority before paying.