Centre permits bureaucrats to retain items valued as much as Rs 5,000 obtained from overseas dignitaries

The central authorities has issued an official order, permitting bureaucrats of All India Services just like the IAS, IPS and IFoS officers to retain items obtained from overseas dignitaries whereas being members of Indian delegation.
A five-decade-old legislation governing guidelines over overseas contribution to bureaucrats has been amended by the Centre, bringing it in keeping with the Foreign Contribution (Acceptance or Retention of Gifts or Presentations) Rules, 2012, that regulate acceptance of items by VIPs on overseas visits. 
As per the principles, the recipients of the items are required to submit them within the ‘toshakhana’, a repository of such articles within the Ministry of External Affairs, for evaluation by customs appraiser to judge their market worth. The recipient is then knowledgeable in regards to the worth of the present by the ‘toshakhana’.
Bureaucrats can retain items with worth lower than Rs 5,000. However, if the worth surpasses the edge of Rs 5,000, the recipient is obtainable the choice of shopping for the present by paying the distinction of quantity between the market worth and Rs 5,000.
It is value noting that present guidelines lacked any provision within the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, with respect to receipt or retention of items obtained from overseas dignitaries by Civil Services Officers as part of the Indian delegation or in any other case. The guidelines had allowed officers to obtain items from solely close to family members or from private associates having no official dealings with them, on events like marriage ceremony or non secular features, and many others., when bestowing items is in accordance with prevailing customs and traditions. Besides, they’re additionally required to report it to the federal government if the worth of such items exceeded Rs 25,000, the principles say.
So so as to tackle the lacuna within the guidelines governing retention of items from overseas dignitaries, the federal government inserted a brand new sub-rule underneath Section 11 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968. The new sub-section permits officers to obtain and retain items as per the identical algorithm that govern acceptance of items by VIPs from overseas dignitaries.
The Centre had in March 2020 circulated a draft proposal for modification to AIS(Conduct) Rules and sought responses from states and UTs, positively failing which might be “presumed that the state government has no objection to the proposed amendments”.