Central government officials will be able to keep mobiles, laptops or other similar electronic gadgets worth up to Rs 1.3 lakh. After four years, he will also be able to use these gadgets privately. The Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance has issued guidelines in this regard. According to this, eligible officers can take mobiles, laptops, tablets, phablets, notebooks, notepads, ultra-books, net-books or other electronic gadgets of such value for official work.
As per the guidelines, all officers of the level of deputy secretary and above of the central government will be eligible for such electronic gadgets. In case of Section Officers and Under Secretaries, such devices can be issued to officers up to 50 per cent of the sanctioned capacity. Regarding the cost of the equipment, the office memorandum said it could be rs 1 lakh plus tax.
However, in case of gadgets that use more than 40 per cent of Make-in-India components, the limit will be Rs 1.30 lakh plus tax. “If an officer in a ministry/department is already allotted a gadget, he cannot be issued a new device for four years. However, there will be an ‘exception’ if the equipment does not remain affordably repairable. It said that the officer can keep this device after four years. “The concerned ministry/department will have to ensure that all the data from the equipment is cleared before handing it over to the officer for placement,” the office memorandum said. Following this office memorandum dated July 21, 2023, the order issued on March 27, 2020 will be withdrawn. It fixed the price of such devices at Rs 80,000 and there was no provision to keep the devices for personal use.
