The DoPT vide its O.M. No. 31011/06/2023-Estt.(A-IV) dated 29th March, 2023, has considered the issue whether to allow reimbursement of leave encashment or not in cases where the employees undertake journey on private vehicles in areas connected by public transport or the employee himself decides to forgo his claim resulting in ‘NIL’ claim on journeys performed.
If the employee was granted LTC advance/ leave/ encashment as per procedure before commencement of journey, then, denial of EL encashment is not appropriate because of NIL claim mentioned above. Further, he is not required to forgo the fare reimbursement for LTC Journey as per prevailing instructions:
(i) The Journey on LTC is made by taxi, auto-rickshaw etc, only between places not connected by rail and these modes operate on a regular basis from point to point with the specific approval of the State Governments/ transport authorities concerned and are authorized to ply as public carriers;
(ii) Where the employee travels on LTC upto the nearest airport/ railway station/ bus terminal by authorized mode of transport and undertakes the rest of journey to a declared place of visit by private transport/ own arrangement (such as personal vehicle or private taxi, etc.), limited upto 200 KMs to and fro;
(iii) When the Head of the Department allows the use of own/ hired taxi for an LTC journey on account of disability of the employee or dependent family member as per extant instructions.
The original O.M. of DoPT (CCS LTC Rules 1988 – Fulfilment of procedural requirements) is placed below: