Gujarat: 150% increase in allowances for snacks, beverages offered to visitors at government offices

Indian Express

14-05-2025

The Gujarat state Finance Department has decided to implement an increase of 150% in the allowances granted to government officials for expenses towards offering beverages and snacks to visitors in their office. Senior government officials said that the increase was 'long overdue and necessary' as the current stipulated grant was last calculated in 1998.
The resolution of the Finance department, issued on Tuesday, is based on the provisions under the Mumbai Contingency Expenditure Rules, which empower officers to clear expenses incurred towards offering beverages and snacks to guests, visitors and invitees to the offices of government officials, as per their rank and the limit of the 'Guest allowance or snack expenditure'.
The resolution has increased the grants for officers of the ranks of Government Secretaries to Department heads, Additional Secretaries of the Administrative Department, Joint Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, non-Secretary rank Department heads, Regional heads and Additional Commissioners. District Collectors and District Development Officers (DDO) as well as other designated department heads of the district collectorates, who may not have the rank of District Collector or DDO, have also been included in the list of officers given the revised grant as per the resolution.
For government secretaries and department heads, the annual allowance has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 while for Additional Secretaries of the Administrative Department, Joint Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, non-Secretary rank Department heads, Regional heads and Additional Commissioners, District Collectors and District Development Officers, the approved annual expenditure has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,500.
For designated department heads of the district collectorates, who may not have the rank of District Collector or DDO, the allowance has been increased from Rs 3,000 to Rs 7,500, annually. The resolution also increased the allowance for snacks per person from Rs 20 to Rs 50 for government secretaries and other department heads, and for officers of other categories up to the rank of District Collector from Rs 15 to Rs 35.
The grant has been put into retrospective effect from April 1, 2025. The resolution also directs the officials to 'ensure that there is no expenditure incurred over and above the stipulated amount'. The officers can seek special permission for additional expenditure incurred for any specific events, up to 10% of the sanctioned amount. The resolution states, 'In case of additional expenditure for extraordinary reasons, which is more than 10% of the stipulated amount, the cases must be put together in a single file by April 15 each year and sent to the Finance Department. However, the officers, who incur additional expenditures must mention the detailed reasons for the same in the file that is sent to the Finance Department.'
Speaking to The Indian Express, a senior government official said that the amount of increase had been estimated based on a common assessment. 'The existing budget allocation towards the expenses for offering snacks and tea to visitors is of the year 1998, which is extremely old and insufficient. This is the first increase in over 20 years and therefore, it is also significant. There was no specific calculation but (it was) based on a simple assessment of the expenses incurred by most departments. We believe that this expense needs to be looked into more regularly as government officials cannot expend much energy and time in getting approvals for mandatory expenses as guests have to be treated with hospitality,' the official said.