Delhi government on Thursday announced that its employees can take cash equivalent of leave travel concession (LTC) if they opt for it, in a bid to boost the consumer spending during the festive season.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government said a special festival package of advance will be also be accorded to all Delhi government employees for any important festivals up to March 31, 2021.
In a statement, the Finance Department of Delhi government said, “In the view of Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown which has created a disruption of transport and hospitality sector, the Delhi government has observed that a number of its employees are not in a position to avail the leave travel concession fare for travel to any place in India or their hometowns in the current block of 2018-21”.
“With a view to compensate and incentivise consumption by the Delhi government employees thereby giving a boost to consumption expenditure, the government has decided that cash equivalent of LTC will be given to its employees by way of reimbursement if an employee opts for this in due of 1LTC in the block of 2018-21,” the statement further read.
The Delhi government decided that the employees who are entitled to business class airfare will get Rs 36,000 LTC followed by Rs 20,000 for the employees who are entitled to an economy class of airfare. Lastly, the employees who are entitled to rail fare of any class will get Rs 6,000 LTC.
It has also been decided that a special festival package of advance will be accorded to all the Delhi government employees for any important festivals up to March 31, 2021. An amount of Rs 10,000 will be paid to the employees as advance, under the initiative, it said.
The special cash package has been announced in a bid to boost the consumption expenditure and incentivise employees, the statement said.
The Delhi government is very hopeful that through these steps it will bring some ease to lives of the employees and they will be able to happily celebrate the upcoming festival with their family, it said.
A number of Delhi government employees are not in a position to avail the LTC fare for travel to any place in India or their hometowns in the current block of 2018-21 due to disruption in transport and hospitality sectors caused by the pandemic, it said.
The special festival advance is being given with a view to enabling government servants to meet expenses relating to festivals and to encourage spending, thereby giving a boost to economic activities, it said.
Earlier this provision of advance was only there for the non-gazetted employees. Now it would be applicable to both gazetted and non-gazetted employees, it said.
Employees will get a pre-loaded ‘Rupay’ card of the advance value.
(With PTI inputs)