Babus can keep royalty from books; six-fold hike in other fees

Bureaucrats can now keep with them the income from literary, cultural or artistic works like writing books and sellings paintings or pictures not related to their job.
The government has also increased the limit for retaining fees on any other earnings by them by six-fold from Rs 250 to Rs 1,500.
The income from literary, cultural or artistic efforts, which are not aided by the knowledge acquired in the course of service, is not 'fee' and can be retained in full by these officers, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said.
In other cases, one-third of any fees in excess of Rs 1,500 paid to IAS, IPS and IFS officers in a financial year shall be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India or state, it said. Earlier, the limit was Rs 250.

The new rules, which has modified a directive issued 56 years ago, is applicable on the officials of three all-India services -- Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFS).
"It is a good decision. The extended limit will allow officers to keep fee given to them for giving lectures or presentation. However, the limit need to be further extended," a senior IAS officer said.
With this order, the DoPT has changed a directive issued in June 1959 which had set the limit for keeping the fee from other means as Rs 250.
There are 4,802 IAS, 3,848 IPS and 3,131 IFS officers in the country, as per a latest data.