Castletown Commissioners wants to see charges introduced for Freedom of Information requests after it received 14 in one year.
Chair Tony Brown said the cost of responding is being borne by ratepayers, and he would also like the anonymity element removed from the act.
The local authority is planning to ask the Council of Ministers to look into changing the regulations to allow local authorities and other statutory bodies to charge for the service.
‘We had 14 requests in total, 12 of which came from non-Castletown residents,’ Mr Brown said.
‘Whereas we agree to the principle of FOIs, we do think there is a need to examine whether or not there should be a charge made to anybody who wishes to submit one, because at the moment the full cost falls on the ratepayers of Castletown and it’s the same throughout the island.
‘The other point we're raising is that we find it strange that we're not able to actually include, in a detailed response to an FOI, the name of the individual who submitted the request, which we believe is not reasonable.
‘They are, by their request, incurring a considerable expense on the ratepayers, and we believe the ratepayers have the right to know who they are.’
Mr Brown adds the board is there to ‘provide information’ to residents and it has ‘nothing to hide’.
He believes people should be making their requests in writing first, before resorting to an FoI request if the response isn’t sufficient.
‘Nobody is saying “stop people asking questions”,’ he said. ‘The board are not saying that we should put in obstacles that mean people can't afford to ask them.
‘I just think there is a need to make sure that the system works as it was meant to work, and that it's fair and it's reasonable.’