Travel Policy

Objective

The travel policy would provide reasonably good facilities / comfort / safety to the employees traveling on official duty with in the country. The facilities provided by the company shall enable the employees to Conduct Company’s business commensurate with the image of the organization.

• To facilitate traveling, the travel should be pre-intimated and approved by immediate reporting manager.
• Hiring of cars is only permitted as per eligibility or in special cases with approval.
• After the completion of travel, all employees shall submit a travel report to their superior enumerating the results achieved, the issues pending, conclusion / recommendations if any.

Mode of Travel

•  Employees shall travel by approved mode of travel as per their entitlements as defined in the table given below.
• The ticket bookings shall be undertaken by the individuals themselves or through admin travel desk for corporate office employees for which intimation in advance is required.

Table 1: Travel Entitlements

Sr. No.	Grade	Mode of Travel
1	L4-MG	Flight ( Economy class) / Train AC Class
2	L1-L3	Flight (Economy class, need based) / II AC (Train)
3	M1-M5	Flight (Economy class & Approval Based)*/ II AC (Train)
4	J1-J4	III AC (Train/ Bus)
5	S1-S2	Sleeper class( Train) / Non AC (Bus)

• Reimbursement of travel expenses shall be inclusive of actual fare, agency charges, sleeper /berth charges, reservation charges, as applicable.
• In case of employee traveling in a class lower than their entitlement, the actual fare incurred shall be payable.
• Relaxation for higher class shall be allowed under exceptional circumstances only with prior written approval of State Head (for sales) / HOD.

 Accommodation

• The employees shall avail hotel booked through admin at corporate location. For other locations employee shall book hotel on his own as per eligibility, with preference given to hotels with corporate tie-ups.
• The cities are classified into 3 categories based on the cost of living/ hotel cost(refer Table 2).
• The lodging limits for any city can be availed as per the category wise limits specified in Table 3 for respective grade.
• Reimbursement of hotel accommodation charges shall be based on actual expenses incurred, supported by bills subject to the class of hotel and the type of city.

Table 2. City Classification

Table 3: Lodging entitlements

Grades	A Category City (Rs.)	B Category City (Rs.)	C Category City (Rs.)
MG	7500	6000	5000
L4-L5	6000	5000	4000
L3	4500	3800	3200
L2	4200	3400	2800
L1	3600	3200	2600
M4-M5	2900	2600	2200
M3	2600	2200	1800
M1-M2	2300	2000	1700
J4	2000	1800	1500
J2-J3	1900	1600	1300
J1	1600	1300	1100
S1-S2	1200	1000	800

Daily Allowance

•  Daily allowance is intended to cover boarding expenses including all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and other refreshments).
• The limits specified are the upper or the maximum limits that can be claimed but on moral grounds, the DA amount should be claimed as per the extent of actual expenses incurred and not as per the actual limits. This should be ensured by the employees and verified by the reporting managers.
•  If an employee avails of the stay arrangements provided by the company or is claiming for food as per bills submitted in exceptional cases, then the DA shall not be payable.
• If an employee has one meal provided by company, only 50% is allowed to be claimed.
• DA Outside HQ: DA entitlements as per their grade, specified in this policy shall be applicable;
  • First 7 days for new joiners during their reporting to Raipur office for joining formalities or at their new HQ.
  • Maximum 3 days hotel stay on transfer to new location.
  • During tour to other locations.
• DA at HQ: Only Employees who are eligible for DA at HQ based on the department wise eligibility can claim DA at HQ.
• No claim for alcoholic drinks and cigarettes and tobacco products are admissible for claims.

Table 4 : Daily Allowance Eligibility (Per day Limits)

Sr. No	Grade	DA @ HQ (Rs.)	DA outside HQ* (Provided as Fooding Expense for R&D/BTS)**
1	L4 – MG	Actual (With Bills)	Actual
2	L1 –L3	Upto 500 (With Bills)	Upto 1000
3	M2-M5	Upto 400 (With Bills)	Upto 800
4	M1	225	Upto 600
5	J4	175	Upto 450
6	J2-J3	175	Upto 400
7	J1	175	Upto 350
8	S1-S2	150	Upto 300

Department wise DA at HQ eligibility

• DA at HQ eligibility will be provided need-based only in few departments where intensive field work is required.
• The eligibility criteria would vary from department to department as per nature of work.
  • Product Development : Shall be provided in case of travel km is equal to or more than 40km per day.
  • Sales: Shall be provided in case of travel km is equal to or more than 50km per day.
  • QA/FS: Shall be provided in case of more than 6hrs working in field per day.
  • Production/SPR/BRS: Shall be provided in case of more than 6hrs working in field per day and only in specified seasons.
    1. FC Production Team: 1)Rabi Season : Oct-Jun 2)Kharif Season : Jul-Sep.
    2. VC Production Team: Jun-Feb
  • Vehicle odometer reading photo to be uploaded for the start and end of local trip alongwith travel purpose for DA claim in Xeasy.

Laundry

• Can be claimed after 3 days stay for one pair of shirt & trouser (for males) and one dress (for females) per day of the remaining days of stay.
• Bill has to be submitted for the same.

Local Conveyance At Head Quarters

• Local Conveyance entitlements while on tour and at head quarters is as per the entitlements of respective grades.
• The maximum travel in a month shall not exceed the given distance limits in kilometres in a month.
• There are different vehicle eligibility allowed for the purpose of local conveyance in various departments based on specific job requirements.
• There are maximum or minimum km wise limits placed in the respective two wheeler and four wheeler vehicle policies (refer to the vehicle policies) with varying per km rate of reimbursement.
• In case of hired/rental vehicle, in exceptional conditions, prior approval has to be taken from reporting manager/HOD and the same should be forwarded to accounts during 4 wheeler expense claim.
• The overall summary of the entitlement is given in the table 5. For more details the respective department vehicle policies maybe refereed.

Table 5: Local Conveyance Entitlements

Grades	Sales/PD	Grades	Production/FS	Grades	R&D	Grades	Other Departments
MG-L1	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy (Less km run)	MG-L1	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy (Less km run)	MG-L1	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy (Less km run)	MG-L4	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy (Less km run)
M1-M5	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy for Sales (3000 km/Month)	M1-M5	Four wheeler Vehicle Policy for Production (3000 km/Month)	M4-M5	Four Wheeler Vehicle Policy for R&D (less km run)	L3-M3	1) Four wheeler Vehicle Policy (Less km run) 2) Four wheeler @ Rs.12 or 11/km  (based on type of car)
J3-J4	Grade J4: Four wheeler @ Rs.11/km, max upto 2500km/month and 500km/month by Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/km. Grade J3: Four wheeler @ Rs.11/km, max upto 2000km/month and 1000km/month by Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/km.	S1-J4	Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/km	J3-M3	Two wheeler vehicle policy for R&D (less km run)	*S1-M2	Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/ Km (Approval based)
S1-J2	Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/km (Max 200 km/day, 3000 km/month) or Public Transport			S1-J2	Two wheeler @ Rs.3.5/ Km (Approval based)

Those employees at the given grades who are covered in any Vehicle Policy would be eligible for the given rates/km based on type of vehicle.

Those covered in 4 wheeler vehicle policy are also eligible for 2 wheeler rate @ 3.5/km with similar km restrictions applicable to the function/role, if any.

Table 6: Four wheeler Reimbursement Rates for those not covered in Vehicle Policy.

Category	M3-M5(Rs.)	L1-L3(Rs.)
Sedan/SUV	NA	12
Hatchback	11	11

•  If an employee has not hired any conveyance separately and has traveled using conveyance provided by the Company, then conveyance expenses shall not be reimbursed.
•  No local conveyance claims for conveyance between office locations and home, to & fro, shall be entertained.
• All miscellaneous / incidental expenses incurred for official purpose such as internet, telephone calls, photocopying, facsimile charges etc are not included in the daily allowances.
• All such expenses made only for official purposes shall be claimed only if duly approved by State Head/HOD.
• At the time of preparing the travel requisition, complete details for the   reasons of travel must be given.
• The employee shall discuss his tour plan prior with his reporting manager.  The HOD will approve/reject the request based upon business requirement.
• For ticket booking , the employee may send a requisition for train / air ticket booking to the travel desk in advance , in case the employee has to travel by a higher ‘class’ than his  designation permits, he has to get the prior approval of his Function Head .
• The employee shall not be eligible for claims in case tickets are booked by Admin. The employee booking tickets on their own needs to claim through Xeasy.
•  Settlement of Travel Expenses after completion of tour needs to be done by the employee in Xeasy, recording actual details of journey, stay and related expenses. The employee must ensure that all tour reimbursements for a month are properly entered in Xeasy, real time or latest by 15^th of every month. And the claims reach accounts department.
• The employee shall attach original supporting (i.e. tickets and original bills, wherever possible, for boarding, lodging and other expenses), sign the printout and send the set to accounts for processing further.
• Accounts shall process as per entitlements and take necessary approvals from the reporting manager / HOD.  Reimbursement shall be carried out by adhering to the laid down process of Accounts.
•  The Expense entry in Xeasy has to be on monthly basis, if there is no expense for a given month a “NIL” entry has to be made to close the month.

The employees have to be very particular about timely claim entries to ensure smooth transaction clearance by accounts