• ONGC Top Guns Face Travel Allowance Cut

    The directors at Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) are set to lose the perk of claiming full travel allowance and comforts while working in Delhi that helped them claim piles of cash on top of their salaries.

    The directors are officially based at Dehradun, the company HQ, but mostly operate from Delhi and end up being on a perennial tour to Delhi, claiming daily allowance, residential and any other benefit available to a visiting top executive. An oil ministry decision will now end this.

    For directors, the headquarters will be changed to Delhi, said sources with direct knowledge of the matter. “The company’s headquarters will remain at Dehradun. The shift from Dehradun to Delhi is only with respect to directors’ base. This will help us save public money,” said a source.

    At present, most directors have company-paid accommodations in Delhi and Dehradun or another city, sources said. The houses, called transit accommodation, are in posh localities of Delhi with monthly lease of Rs 2 lakh or more. Another perk directors will lose is daily allowance of about Rs 1,800 or roughly Rs 50,000 per month. The food and transport is also paid for by ONGC.

    “As per terms and conditions of their appointment, the ‘headquarters’ of CMD and functional directors is Dehradun. However, in the terms and conditions of appointment of director (onshore) received from ministry of petroleum & natural gas on 27.09.2016, his headquarters has been mentioned as ‘New Delhi’,” ONGC said in response to ET’s email query.

    According to sources, similar communications are being sent to other directors and chairman as well.

    “During their stay at Delhi, chairman & managing director/directors are provided with transit accommodation instead of hotel.

    “However, during their visits to Dehradun, they avail ONGC guest house. CMD/directors are not claiming any DA for their stay at Delhi,” ONGC said.

    At present, ONGC has seven functional directors, including the chairman, two government nominee directors and three independent directors, according to its annual report. Linus Ullmark Jersey

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