Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Bureaucrats in a fix over valuing family jewels

,TNN 

For the past few weeks, a senior IAS officer has been trying to convince his wife to share details of all the jewellery she has acquired over the years. But the missus has refused to cooperate, saying she is not covered by the Lokpal or government rules.

"My wife has told me that she does not need to disclose details of streedhan (assets over which a married woman has ownership). I am told others are also facing this problem," he says. Although he initially tried hard to get her around, he has now virtually given up and is now contemplating the next course of action, which may include seeking a clarification from the government.

Alternatively, he will file the new property returns without the jewellery details.

The newly-mandated returns have to be filed before September 15 and should include cash holdings and shares and mutual fund investments by spouse and dependent children. While officers have been filing immovable property returns for the past few years, jewellery is proving to be a particularly contentious issue, and the returns are major talking point in government departments.



Over weekends, some of the officers have been visiting bank lockers to prepare an asset register. In some cases, it is family jewels that have been passed on and quite naturally the weight of the ornaments is not known, forget even the value. One joint secretary-rank officer says he has now bought a weighing scale to help ready the list of jewellery owned by the family.

"We have been getting some stuff from the locker every week, weighing it and replacing it the next weekend. Now it's almost done," he says.

But there are other problems. A secretary, for instance, has got in touch with his batchmate in the income tax department to find out how to weigh 'jadau' sets, which consist of a variety of precious and semi-precious stones which are embedded in gold. The tax department official too didn't have a readymade answer and promised to get back after consulting a valuer.


Another is planning to speak to officers from Uttar Pradesh who had faced a similar issue when the Allahabad high court had issued a ruling a few years ago, which was subsequently quashed by the Supreme Court.

Although most officers are seeing filing the returns as a mere formality, they aren't taking any chances since a delay, they fear, may turn into a reason for denying of promotion. Most officers are ensuring that everything owned by the family is disclosed amid chatter that the "more intelligent ones" may over-invoice the quantity of jewellery they hold, and add to it in the years ahead.

Source:-The Times of India

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