Leave Travel Concession (LTC) is granted to Central Government employees for travel to various parts of the country and home as well. The number of home travel visits allowed is two. This is made available every four years. One of the hometown visits can be substituted with an “All India visit” if needed. LTC is not available for employees whose spouses work in the Indian Railways.

There is good news for all those government employees who had travelled on LTC by air to visit Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and North-East Region (NER) during the period of January 2010 to June 2014 and booked the tickets through travel agents other than the ones authorized agents. The government has decided to grant one-time relaxation to such government employees who had availed Leave Travel Concession (LTC) by air to visit J&K and NER during the period of January 2010 to June 2014 and booked the tickets through travel agents.

As per the rules, whenever a government employee claims LTC by air, he or she is required to book the air tickets directly from the airlines (Booking counters, website of airlines) or by utilizing the services of the authorized travel agents- ‘Balmer Lawrie & Company’, ‘ Ashok Travels & Tours’ and ‘IRCTC’.

However, there were several cases during the period of 2010-13 where the government employees had travelled on LTC by air to visit Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and North-East Region (NER) under the special dispensation scheme after booking the tickets through private travel agents due to lack of awareness of rules at that time.

Foreign tour rules for Central Government employees

The Leave Travel Concession has been increased for employees over the years. There are still some areas wherein there could be further relaxations. These are as follows:

  • Permission for journey by air to and from the North Eastern region, for all employees.
  • Permission for employees posted in North Eastern states for travel within that region.
  • Increase in the LTC periodicity once in 2 years.
  • Allow an employee to tour outside the country once in his/her lifetime under the provisions of LTC.

The claims of these government employees were initially settled by the administrative authorities. However, after a few years when the audit authorities noticed the lapses, objections were raised on these claims and recoveries were ordered in such cases along with charging of penal interest.

In view of the financial hardships caused to these individuals, huge demands were received from ministries/Departments for grant of one-time relaxation in these cases. Subsequently, in February 2020, the government has issued clarifications regarding relaxation of purchase of air tickets from authorized Travel Agents for the purpose of LTC. The relaxation has been provided subject to fulfilment of fare limit of LTC and other LTC conditions prevalent at the time of performance of the journey by the government employee.

The government has also reiterated that the instructions regarding booking of air tickets on LTC journey through authorized modes should be strictly complied by the government employees.