New Delhi: The Centre has formed a committee to simplify forms and the process for central government employees to file details of their assets and liabilities along with that of their spouses and dependent children as mandated by the Lokpal Act.
The committee, formed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), will examine the forms prescribed under the Lokpal rules for filing the returns and suggest necessary changes in them, official sources said.
The move comes following "genuine concerns and apprehensions" raised by some of the officials about posting of every information provided by them in public domain, the sources said.
The government may change the format of the form on the basis of the committee's recommendation, they said.
The DoPT had yesterday 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 to December 31 from September 15.
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 September 15, which has now been extended.
These declarations are in addition to those 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 earlier issued a form for filing these returns which have space 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.
