Government asks babus to file revised property returns by Sep 15

NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked all its staff to file their revised property returns by September 15 as part of a mandatory obligation under the Lokpal Act.

As per Lokpal rules, public servants who have filed declarations, information and annual returns of property, shall file the revised details of their movable and immovable assets as on August 1, 2014, to the competent authority on or before September 15 this year, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in a directive.

The directive asked all Ministries and Departments of the Centre to bring the provisions of Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits of Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Rules, 2014, to the notice of all concerned for compliance.

The directive covers all central government servants which comes to a total of about 50 lakh and includes IAS, IFS and IPS officers, and employees of Groups A, B and C.

The DoPT has developed an online system named PRISM for IAS officers to file their property returns under the Lokpal Act, and asked IAS officers to file information related to assets and liabilities online.

"An application, namely, Property Related Information System (PRISM) has been designed and would become operational w.e.f. August 1, 2014 to enable the officer to file the information and declaration online," the DoPT said.

The Centre has issued new forms for filing returns which have fields to fill 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 a person or any entity, among others.

The employees also need to declare motor vehicles, aircraft, yachts or ships, gold and silver jewellery and bullion possessed by them, their spouses and dependent children, according to the form.

The Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Rules, 2014, were notified by the DoPT recently.

As per the rules, notified under Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, every public servant shall file declaration, information and annual returns of his assets and liabilities as on March 31 every year, on or before July 31 of that year.

These declarations are in addition to such returns being filed by the government employees under various services rules.

According to the Lokpal Act, a public servant shall furnish to the competent authority information relating to the assets of which he, his spouse and his dependent children, jointly or severally, own.