Centre extends deadline for employees to file info on assets

The Centre today extended till December-end the deadline for central government employees to file the details of their assets and liabilities along with that of their spouses and dependent children as mandated by the Lokpal Act.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) today notified the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Amendment Rules, 2014, extending the date for the filing of such returns from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31.
The move follows a representation by some government officials regarding difficulties being faced by them in the filing of these returns, official sources said.

As per the rules, notified under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, every public servant shall file declaration, information and annual returns pertaining to his assets and liabilities as on March 31 every year or on or before July 31 of that year. For the current year, the last date for filing these returns was Sept. 15, which has now been extended.
These declarations are in addition to similar ones filed by the employees under various services rules.
All Group A, B and C employees are supposed to file a declaration under the new rules. There are about 22,95,374 employees in these three categories, as per the government's latest data.

DoPT has issued new forms for filing these returns which have fields for mentioning details of cash in hand, bank deposits, investment in bonds, debentures, shares and units in companies or mutual funds, insurance policies, provident fund, personal loans and advance given to any person or entity, among others.
The employees need to declare motor vehicles, aircraft, yachts or ships, gold and silver jewellery and bullion possessed by them, their spouses and dependent children.
However, the rules state that the competent authority may exempt a public servant from filing information in respect of any asset if its value does not exceed his or her four months' basic pay or Rs 2 lakh, whichever is higher.