Staff Cars not to be used for official journey outside the headquarters when TA is admissible
But for going to the market? That royal looking Ambassador car (which is slowly giving way to flashy new cars) is the ultimate status symbol of the babu in India. Lalu Prasad Yadav once remarked that a babu will do anything to retain his car, his bungalow and his janitor. The car with the red or blue light and with a liveried/uniformed assistant/driver is a great ego booster especially for the family. Even very honest officers fall prey to the charms of a government car which they know pretty well they are not allowed to use. You can find the best pieces of fiction in the log books maintained for government vehicles. When a car is used to transport an officer from his residence to his office or his spouse wherever the spouse wants to go, the officer in charge of the vehicle has to write stories about how the government vehicle was used for official purposes. And these stories have to match with the actual kilometres the vehicle has been used/misused for.
The Minister of State for Finance, Mr. S.S. Palanimanickam informed parliament yesterday that,
“Under the Travelling Allowance (TA) rules, reimbursement of taxi/scooter charges for journey for attending office on holidays or for proceeding on official tour is normally admissible only from the headquarter of the employees or their residence in cities with the Urban Agglomeration (UA), from the place of residence in the U.A. to Railway Station/Bus station/Airport and vice-versa. The question of allowing such reimbursement to officials residing in peripheral towns, which are not within the UA limits of the city of their headquarters, does not arise. The Staff Car Rules provide that Staff Cars should not be used for official journey outside the headquarters for which TA is admissible. There is no proposal for amending the TA Rules or Staff Car Rules.”
A car is no more a status symbol, but a staff car still is.