Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A civil servant owning an aircraft, yacht or ship? New rule demands declaration

Who owns this Yacht?
ARE you an Indian civil servant owning an aircraft, yacht or ship? According to new rules of furnishing information on assets and liabilities, published in the Gazette of India on July 14, 2014, a civil servant needs to give those details too. Form-II (serial no: VII) of submission of assets and liabilities under Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 asks those details. Here are 10 things about submission of a civil servant’s assets:

1. The new rules are named, Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits of Exemption of Assets in Filing Results) Rules, 2014.
2. The new Rules came into effect from July 14, 2014.
3. Under Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, every public servant shall file declaration, information or return regarding his assets and liabilities of the previous fiscal by July 31.
4. A public servant is exempted from filing information about an asset if its value does not exceed four months of his or her basic pay or Rs 2 lakh, whichever is higher.
5.  A public servant has to show assets and liabilities of his or her spouse and dependent children too.
6. List of moveable properties include cash in hand, bank deposits including fixed deposits, details of bonds, shares, mutual funds etc., details of postal savings, insurance, provident fund etc.
7. One needs to give details of motor vehicles, aircraft, yacht, ships etc. owned by self, spouse or dependent children. And also details of their registration numbers, year of purchase and amount need to be recorded.
8. Details of gold, silver and precious stones etc. need to be submitted.
9. On the statement of immovable properties, a civil servant will have to describe the property, land or house or flat or shop etc., and date of acquisition and how it was acquired (whether by purchase, mortgage, lease, inheritance or gift).
10. The present value of the property and the annual income from it also need to be furnished. Even earlier, a civil servant needed to furnish his immovable properties.

10 comments:

  1. Noe this is to be done by all Central Government employees , i.e. from Group A to Group D. Is this information (submitted by employees) also required to be published on Internet????

    ReplyDelete
  2. Too much intrusion in privacy. Being spouse of Public Servant is not an offence.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Being a Public servant is an Offence!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It seems no babu woke up to protest this draconian requirement. I think babus are yet to digest the impact if this notification.

    ReplyDelete
  5. In the modern individualistic society its highly doubtful that one has 'control' over spouse and children so that they can furnish their minute asset details.

    ReplyDelete
  6. One can only hope that the information furnished is not put on Internet, assuming Law & Order to be perfect in India!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, the information furnished shall be placed in Public domain by the Ministry Concerned. This assumes a perfect law & Order in India.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If one is honest and clean enough there should not be any hesitant to be open transparent and declare whatever public servants own through tax payers money . The problem is only with corrupt officers and their spouses . Yes it is a crime to be a spouse of corrupt babu!

    ReplyDelete
  9. And what about threat from anti-social elements to Honest Babus, once the submitted information is easily available on Internet for all to download. Assumption of perfect law and order with a perfect & Honest Judiciary is dangerous for honest babus too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Most vulnerable are babus with double income [both husband and wife working in government] and family having only one child].

    ReplyDelete