Leave Travel Concession Rules : Leave Travel Concession is such a travel facility available to government employees, under which reimbursement of expenses incurred in traveling to their hometown or any part of the country is done by them.
LTC full form – Leave Travel Concession
The central government provides various allowances to its employees for financial compensation and Leave Travel Concession is one of those important allowances. It allows them to travel with their family to their hometown or any other destination within India, at the expense of the government.
Some of these allowances are part of the salary of the employees such as Dearness Allowance, Home Rent Allowance, Transport Allowance etc.
On the other hand, some allowances are reimbursed to the government employees after submitting claims by them. Like- Traveling Allowance , DA (Daily Allowance) etc.
One of these allowances is Leave Travel Concession, which is not a part of salary and for which the government employee has to claim for reimbursement and as per the the Leave Travel Concession Rules (LTC rules) the eligible claimed amount is reimbursed to government employee.
The Leave Travel Concession Rules can be complex and confusing, making it important for government employees to have a clear understanding of them.
In this blog, we are going to explain important Leave Travel Concession Rules for Government Employees, including eligibility, entitlements, and conditions for availing this benefit.
Read also: > Dearness Allowance for Government Employees > Travelling Allowance for Government Employees
So let’s know what are the Leave Travel Concession Rules for Government Employees?
7th Pay Commission Leave Travel Concession Rules for Government Employees?
Before discussing the key aspects of Leave Travel Concession Rules, let’s first define what Leave Travel Concession is.
What is Leave Travel Concession?
We can define it in such a way that the facility or concession provided by government to its employees for any journey performed by them during leave or holiday, is called Leave Travel Concession.
It is clear that in order to avail this facility, the Government servant has to apply for leave. When the leave of that employee is approved by the competent authority then he can start the journey.
To avail the facility of Leave Travel Concession, the employee must keep two things in mind during the journey.
First, if that employee travels to Hometown, then he will have to provide proof of travel from his Headquarters to Hometown. Similarly, if he travels with his family to any part of the country, he will have to provide proof of travel to that destination.
If only the family of the employee performs the journey, then he cannot claim for reimbursement of LTC.
The second important thing is that LTC can be claimed only for reimbursement of expenses incurred on travel by rail, road, air, etc. during the journey. Other expenses like hotel, food, sightseeing, taxi and auto fares and other such expenses cannot be claimed for reimbursement.
Types of Leave Travel Concession
As per LTC rules for central government employees, there are two types of Leave Travel Concession facilities available to an employee.
One is Hometown LTC and second is All India LTC
Home Town LTC Rules
The Home Town LTC rules allow central government employees to travel to their home town ( himself or with his family.
All government employees can avail this twice in every block of four years and can travel with family to their hometown.
Here Hometown means the record of which has been officially entered in the service book of the said employee and got it verified by the competent authority.
While making a claim for Leave Travel Concession, the information given by the employee has to be certified by a superior officer from the Service Book of that employee.
All India LTC Rules
All India LTC Rules allow government employees to travel himself or with his entire family to any part of the country and can avail the facility of All India LTC.
All India LTC facility is provided to a central government employee once in four years block.
New employee recruited in central government jobs is allowed to travel to his hometown himself or with his family for three years in a block of four years and All India LTC for the fourth year.
The facility of Hometown LTC and All India LTC will be available to these newly recruited central government employees only for the first two blocks of four years applicable after joining the job for the first time.
LTC Block Year
The LTC block year that have been made by the Government of India for its employees to claim the Leave Travel Concession. A block year consists of four years. The current block is 2018-19 (extended upto 31.2.2022)
For every four-years block year, a one year grace period is given by government to its employees.
For example, if an employee did not avail LTC for the block year 2018-21 then he will get one year grace period i.e. for 2022.
Conditions for availing Leave Travel Concession
To avail the facility of Leave Travel Concession, it is necessary to fulfill the following conditions by the Central Government employees-
- Travel during leave must be within India only. That is, a Government servant can claim Leave Travel Concession only for travel within India and not for travel outside India.
- To avail the facility of Leave Travel Concession, it is necessary that at least one year of service of the concerned employee has been completed without any service break.
- The concerned employee is entitled to avail the facility of Leave Travel Concession exemption for his family members as well as dependents.
Here family means spouse and children and other dependent members. Dependent members can be parents and siblings also.
Dependent members will be considered only those whose monthly income does not exceed Rs.9,000. Here income means pension received by parents or scholarship, stipend etc. for brothers/sisters.
The employee’s dependents may include two unmarried children or adopted children wholly dependent on him. Also, dependent siblings can be unmarried minor brothers or unmarried/ divorced/widow sisters who are wholly dependent on the employee concerned.
The two children for whom the employee wants to claim exemption must have been born on or after October 1, 1998. Leave Travel Concession cannot be claimed for more than two children born after this date.
The employee can claim the Leave Travel Concession exemption for all children born before October 1, 1998. - If both husband and wife are in government job then only one of them can claim LTC for them or for their family in his/her respective office. There is no need to claim both separately.
Also, the employee who claims LTC exemption, it is mandatory to give a certificate along with claim in his office that his/her wife/husband is not claiming for LTC for same journey performed by them, in his/her office. - To claim the LTC exemption, the employee has to provide proof of travel to his destination (Hometown or any part of the country). For this a ticket or boarding pass is sufficient for the journeys performed by the employee himself or with his family.
When traveling with family, all family members are required to have tickets or boarding passes. - It is clear that if an employee claims LTC exemption, then it is mandatory for him to travel to the destination. The claim will not be valid even if only his family members complete the journey.
Air ticket booking under LTC
If a Government servant is eligible for air travel, he can travel by Air India only to claim LTC exemption. If Air India service is not available on that route then only he can use other private air service.
But government employees who are not eligible for air travel can use any air service. But they will get rail or bus fare as per their eligibility in LTC reimbursement.
As far as air ticket booking is concerned, all government employees will have to book tickets from the airline concerned to avail the facility of LTC. For this, government employees can use the ticket counter or website of the airline.
If they are buying tickets from a booking agent, then only through government authorized agents like M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company, M/s Ashok Travels & Tours and IRCTC.
You can see OM related to purchase of Air ticket from authorized agents-
Claiming LTC in case of change of job
LTC exemption facility will be available to a government employee even if he changes his job.
If this change happens within a block of four years and there is an unclaimed LTC, it can be claimed in the new government office.
But, if LTC has been availed from the old government office, then no fresh LTC exemption will be allowed by the new government office.
LTC for Multi-Destinations
It is not necessary that during LTC journey, a Government servant will travel only up to the specified destination. The same will be applicable even if he claims LTC exemption after traveling to multiple cities.
In such a case LTC exemption will be available to the employee based on the distance traveled by him from the place of posting to the farthest destination.
But he will get LTC reimbursement for the shortest route to that farthest destination from his place of posting. So, it is not necessary that he will be reimbursed the fare for the same route he has traveled.
The same conditions will be applicable for Hometown LTC as well and that employee will be provided the fare for the shortest route between his/her place of posting to his/her Hometown.
Unclaimed Leave Travel Concession for a block year
If an employee is unable to claim one of the Leave Travel Concession exemptions available in the four-year block, then this LTC exemption facility is carried over to the next block year.
This way the unclaimed LTC in a block year can be claimed in the next block year. Provided that the employee shall travel within the first calendar year of the next block.
Even after this, if the unclaimed LTC is not claimed within the first calendar year of the next block, it will lapse and no subsequent claim will be allowed.
For example, if an employee undertakes one journey in the current block year 2018-21 and also claims Leave Travel Concession exemption in lieu thereof.
But if he is not able to claim the second LTC exemption in the block year 2018-21 due to some reason, then in such a situation he can claim it within the year 2022 in the next block year i.e. 2022-25.
If he does not claim in 2022 also then his LTC eligibility for the block year 2018-21 will come to an end.
This facility (carry over of LTC) is not available for the newly recruited government employees as they get the facility of LTC every year for the first 8 years.
Declaration of place of travel under All India LTC
When a Government servant or any member of his family visits any place of India under All India LTC, then that Government servant has to inform his Controlling Officer in advance of the place to be traveled.
If the said employee wants to change the declared place of journey then he can change with the approval of his Controlling Officer before the commencement of the journey.
But in case of some exceptions where the Controlling Officer feels that the changing of declared place by the Government servant was under some special circumstances and it was not in his hands, then place to be traveled may be changed even after the journey.
This relaxation can be given by the administrative Ministry/Department or Head of Department according to the situation.
Travel to different places by a Govt. employee and his family members
A Government servant and each member of his family can visit various places in the country under All India LTC during a four-year block.
It will not be necessary for the family members of the Government servant to travel to the same place to which the said Government servant has already traveled during the same four-year block.
Time Limit for submission of LTC claim
If a government employee has taken any kind of advance for traveling under LTC, then he will have to claim for LTC reimbursement within one month from the day of completion of the journey.
If the said employee has not taken any kind of advance, then he can claim LTC reimbursement within three months from the day of completion of the journey.
Booking of tickets on taking LTC advance
A Government servant can apply for Advance for booking tickets under LTC for himself and/or his family members sixty-five days before the proposed date of travel.
But within ten days from the day on which the sanctioned amount of advance is credited to his account, the said Government servant will have to produce the ticket, irrespective of the date of commencement of the journey.
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