Reduce official tours and travels to improve working conditions, efficiency, and productivity.

[CA DEV KUMAR KOTHARI]

Official tours and travel:

Official tours and travels are required and undertaken for holding meetings, discussions, negotiations and finalization of certain matters, entering into agreements.

When there is shortage of people, then also tour and travels become necessary so that an officer posted at one place can also work at other place.

Tours and travels are also required for attending government offices, courts, and other offices.  

While on tour, an employed person is generally considered on duty for all days, including intervening holidays. The employer has to bear costs of travels, local conveyances, expenses of boarding and lodging, and daily allowances etc.

Though tours and travels are necessary and cannot be stopped altogether, however, by better planning and adopting better policies, tours and travels can be reduced.

Information technology can help in reduction of tours and travel:

Better and effective communication methods by way of telephones, e-mails, teleconference, video conference etc.  Requirements of personal meetings at local level and also by undertaking tours and travels to other places  can be reduced considerably.

More and effective use of information technology can be used to reduce travel and tours. Exchange of information, discussions, further provisioning of information and documents. In some situations where personal interaction is essential and cannot be avoided, preliminary exchange of documents, information etc. can be completed through IT enabled devices and services so that time required for personal meetings can be reduced.

Tours and idle time:

In case of tours, there is more idle time because of travelling, shifting, making temporary arrangements etc. for visiting destination and again while returning to the original place.

Travels are tiring and burdensome:

Travels are also tiring and burdensome, particularly for elderly people. Travels causes variations in regular daily routines and many important routines like morning walk, exercises, yoga, etc. may have to be missed particularly on days of travel. On travel day, when morning flight is taken one has to wake up early between 3 – 6 AM depending on time of flight, and distance from home to airport.

Travels also causes more un-certainties about health   and increases risks.

Tours and travels are costly:

Tours and travels are also costly because of travelling expenses, boarding and lodging expenses and extra allowances. Indirect extra costs are more idle time and reduced productivity and efficiency.

Tours and travels also increases pollution:

More tours and travel means more use of public and private transport. This increases uses of fuels and more pollution due to increase in traffic in air and road.

Tours and travel must be reduced:

In view of above factors and many more such factors which may be applicable in different situations, reduction of tour and travels can be very effective in reduction of costs, improvement of productivity and efficiency and reduction of pollution.

Therefore, sincere attempts should be made to reduce tours and travels. Instead of frequent tours lengthy tours can be adopted so that ratio of idle is reduced and extra costs in tour and travel can also be reduced per day.

Illustration:

For example, we notice that during last few years, there is shortage of members of ITAT and for that reason frequent tours are planned and undertaken by members of ITAT. Many times such tours are also cancelled. This also causes uncertainty about working of benches of ITAT. Sometimes due to delay in flight, member may not reach on time and the working of bench may not be possible. Sometimes, some health hazards during travel may cause problems and functioning of bench may have to be cancelled.

The following information are gathered from ITAT about tours of members of ITAT:

From http://www.itat.nic.in/  downloaded on 08.08.2015	Duration of tour
Shri Vijay Pal Rao, JM, ITAT, Bangalore will be on tour to ITAT, Mumbai during 03 - 14 August 2015.	12 days
Shri R. P. Tolani , Judicial Member, ITAT, Jaipur Benches will be on tour to ITAT, Delhi Benches during 27 - 31 July 2015.	5 days
Shri J. Sudhakara Reddy, Accountant Member, ITAT, Delhi Benches will be on tour to ITAT, Hyderabad Benches during 29 - 31 July 2015.	3 days
Shri D. Manmohan, Vice President, ITAT, Mumbai Zone and Shri B. R. Baskaran, Accountant Member, ITAT, Mumbai Benches will be on tour to ITAT, Visakhapatnam Bench during 20 - 31 July 2015, instead of 13- 24 July 2015.	12 days
Shri George George K, Judicial Member, ITAT Cochin Benches will be on tour to ITAT, Banglore Benches during 03-14 August 2015	12 days
Ms. Sushma Chowla, Judicial Member, ITAT Pune Bench will be on tour to ITAT Mumbai Benches during 20 - 30 July 2015	11 days
Shri R. S. Syal, Accountant Member, ITAT, Delhi Bench & Shri N. V. Vasudevan, Judicial Member, ITAT, Banglore Bench, will be on tour to ITAT, Kolkatta Bench during 13 - 24 July, 2015.	12 days
Downloaded Earlier: Shri D.K. Rao, AM, ITAT, Mumbai and Shri C.N. Prasad, Judicial Member, Chennai will be on tour to ITAT, Allahabad during 20 Apr - 01 May 2015. instead of Shri Rajendra, AM,ITAT, Mumbai.	12 days
Shri Rajeshwar Prasad, Registrar, ITAT will be tour to Delhi during 06 - 10 Apr 2015.	5 days
Shri G.D. Agrawal, Vice President (AZ/BZ/LZ), ITAT will be on tour to ITAT, Mumbai Benches on 20 Mar 2015.	1 day
Shri Pramod Kumar, Accountant Member, ITAT, Agra Bench will be on tour to ITAT, Bangalore Benches during 06 - 17 Apr 2015.	12 days
Shri P.K. Bansal, Accountant Member, ITAT, Panaji Bench will be on tour to ITAT, Kolkata Benches during 06 -17 Apr 2015.	12 days
Orders of Tour in respect of S/Shri P.K. Bansal, Accountant Member, ITAT Panaji and B.P. Jain, Judicial Member, ITAT, Kolkata Benches are withdrawn forthwith, in view of Transfer orders dated 23 Mar 2015.	Tour cancelled due to transfer
Tour of Shri A. D. Jain, JM ITAT, Amritsar Bench to ITAT, Mumbai Benches during 29 June to 10 July 2015 has been extended upto 07 August 2015.
Shri G.S. Pannu, Accountant Member, ITAT Mumbai Benches will be on tour to ITAT, Pune Benches during 30 Mar - 10 Apr 2015.	12 days
Shri A.D. Jain, Judicial Member, ITAT, Amritsar and Shri Sanjay Arora, Accountant Member, ITAT Mumbai will be on tour to ITAT, Patna Bench during 13 - 17 Apr 2015.	5 days

From the above information we find that tour duration is short. In many cases the duration is 12 days. It appears that the duration shown does not include the days of travelling because on the days, the member attend the bench at destination. In twelve days period minimum 2 holidays will be on account of Saturday and Sunday. There can be more holidays.

Longer tours or posting of member at another place for a longer duration can be better administrative option.