Govt approves compulsory monetisation of transport

The government has approved compulsory monetisation of transport facility for government officials of grade 20 to 22 from January 1, 2012 to save Rs 3 billion annually.
From January 1, the officers shall pay for petrol, maintenance/repair expenditure, insurance, transfer fee, as well as, any other duties and taxes on the vehicle in addition to payment of installments.
The decision has been taken in line with the cabinet decision taken on June 3 and would help eliminate misuse of official vehicles. The prime minister has directed the Cabinet Division to implement the policy in a transparent manner in order to take the reforms agenda of the government forward. The main objective of this policy is within the overall context of observance of the austerity measures approved in the federal budget 2011-12. The overall implementation of the policy shall be the responsibility of all federal secretaries and principal accounting officers, who will particularly ensure that each of the entitled officer of grade 20 to 22 is not in possession or in use of any project vehicle or the departmental operational or general duty vehicle, as well as any vehicle of an organisation or body corporate in his ex-officio capacity, except the only vehicle allocated to him/her through this monetisation policy. An undertaking shall also be obtained from each entitled officer that in case officer is found involved in un-authorised use of a vehicle, he shall be liable to be preceded under the relevant rules. In this regard, a number of certificates and declarations have been prescribed which shall be required to be signed by each officer, including the principal accounting officer for implementation of this policy.
According to the salient features of the policy, there will be a complete ban on the purchase of staff cars and grade 20 to 22 officers who have been provided official transport shall be given the first option to purchase the allocated cars as per prescribed formula already in vogue.