Dynamic or flexi-fare in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains will be admissible under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) allowance.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued a directive in this regard to all central government ministries.
The move comes after references were received from various segments seeking clarification on the issue of admissibility of flexi-fare while booking the tickets of these trains for the purpose of LTC.
Ministry of railways have introduced a flexi-fare system in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains, where the base fares will increase by 1% with every 10% of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit.
As per norms, a government employee gets to-and-fro journey cost reimbursement when he avails LTC, in addition to paid leaves.
LTA Exemption:
Though it is known that Leave Travel Allowance amount is exempted from tax, there are still doubts on the exemption. The exemption is restricted only to the travel cost incurred by the employee. The tax exemption is not valid for the costs incurred during the entire trip which might include expenses such as food expenses, shopping expense and other expense.The exemption is not available for more than two children of the individual born after October 01, 1998. Exemption is allowed for only two travels within a block of four years. The current block is between 2014-2017. If the individual doesn’t take advantage of the exemption within this block, they can carry it over to the next block.
Given below is a list of expenses that is exempted under Leave Travel Allowance
- Travel by air- Economic air fare by the shortest route or amount spent will be exempted depending on whichever is lesser.
- Travel by rail- A.C. first class fare by the shortest route or the amount spent on travel will be exempted depending on whichever is lesser.
- Place of origin and destination place of journey connected by rail but journey performed by other mode of transport
- Place of origin & destination not connected by rail(partly/fully) but connected by other recognised Public transport system
- Place of origin & destination not connected by rail(partly/fully) and not connected by other recognised Public transport system also
