Ahead of Diwali, the government has extended the leave travel concession (LTC) scheme allowing relaxation for travel by air to visit the northeast, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar, and Ladakh for two years. Regarding the same, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), in a circular, said that the relaxation had been further given for more two years, w.e.f. September 26, 2022, till September 25, 2024.
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The eligible central government employees reimburse tickets for to and fro journeys, besides paid leave, when they avail of LTC. In other words, it can be said that LTC is an allowance for travel expenses and is exempted from tax under the Income Tax Act.
Here are key things to know about LTC and the latest extension:
Can all government employees avail of the extended service?
Yes. However, those whose home town and headquarters or place of posting are the same are not eligible for the home town LTC facility.
They are allowed conversion of home town LTC for availing this scheme to visit any place in any one of the three regions out of the above-mentioned four regions except the region wherein his/her hometown is situated, the circular said.
Are fresh recruiters also eligible to avail of the scheme?
Fresh recruits are also allowed conversion of one of the three home town LTCs in a block of four years, applicable to them to visit North East Region, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Ladakh.
In addition, they are allowed one additional conversion of home town LTC to visit UT of J&K/UT of Ladakh in a block of four years.
Are there any specific airline allowing the concession under LTC?
Government servants entitled to travel by air may avail of this concession from their Headquarters in their entitled class of air by any airline subject to the terms and conditions of DoPT.
Journey for the non-entitled employees from their headquarters up to Kolkata/ Guwahati/Chennai /Visakhapatnam/Delhi/ Amritsar shall be undertaken as per their entitlement.
What DoPT said about misuse of LTC?
All the Ministries/Departments are advised to bring it to the notice to all their employees that any misuse of LTC will be viewed seriously and the employees will be liable for appropriate action under the rules.
To keep a check on any kind of misuse of LTC, Ministries/Departments are advised to randomly get some of the air tickets submitted by the officials verified by the airlines concerned with regard to the actual cost of air travel vis-a-vis the cost indicated on the air tickets submitted by the officials, the circular said.
In so far as the applicability of this extended scheme to the persons belonging to the Indian Audit and Accounts Department is concerned, a separate communication will be issued, it said.
First Published: Oct 13, 2022 10:21 AM IST
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