Annual Property Return filing: Salaries of 1,000 Gujarat officials withheld

The Gujarat government today withheld April salaries of around 1,000 Class 1 and Class 2 officials for not filing their Annual Property Returns (APR) within the stipulated deadline, a senior official said. Earlier, on April 14, state Chief Secretary J N Singh had told reporters in Gandhinagar that the salary for April of such employees, payable in May, would be withheld in case they did not file their annual property returns by April 10.

"Salaries for the month of April of around 1,000 Class 1 and Class 2 officers of the state government have been withheld, as they have not filed their Annual Property Returns (APR)," Singh said today. "Though we gave them an extension, many failed to file their returns, that is why we took this decision," Singh said. He added that the number of such employees was gradually decreasing as several of them had started filing property returns after their salaries were withheld.

"We hope the remaining officers will also file their returns now. Otherwise, they will be served show cause notices and departmental action could also be taken against them for non-compliance," he added. During his interaction with the media on April 14, the chief secretary had said that around 3,000 out of 12,000 Class 1 and Class 2 officers of the state government had not filed their APRs.

"We are very clear that employees here will have to file annual property returns, like those in the All India Services do," Singh had said at the time.