New rules give babus time till April to file property returns

New Delhi: The Centre has extended by six months, till April 15 next year, 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 under the Lokpal Act.

The Personnel Ministry has notified new rules -- Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Third Amendment Rules, 2015 -- to say that the date to file the details has been extended from October 15 to April 15, 2016.

This is the fourth extension in the time limit for filing the details.

The declarations under the Lokpal Act are in addition to similar ones filed by the employees under various services rules. All Group A, B and C category employees are supposed to file the declaration.

As per rules, notified under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, 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.

With yesterday's notification, the employees will have to file details about their assets for two years -- 2014 and 2015 -- by April 15.

For 2014, the last date for filing returns was September 15 of last year, which has been extended thrice. It was first extended till December last year, then till April 30, this year and third extension was up to October 15.

The employees will have to file revised returns twice -- one for 2014 (giving details of the assets as on August 1, 2014) and another for 2015 (mentioning information of the assets as on March 31, 2015) -- by the latest deadline.

Employees need to give details like 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.