Guidelines for setting up/ upgrading/refurbishing Guest Houses and hiring of Rent Free Accommodation

 Guest House:

1.         Situations in which Guest House(s) may be set up :

            Guest house may be set up in any of the following situations:

            i.          Where there is no departmental guest house;

ii.         Where existing departmental guest house(s) are not adequate to meet the demand for accommodation;

iii.        Where accommodation in the existing guest house(s) is not available for one or more category of officials.

2.         Accommodation for housing the Guest House        

Guest houses may be set up in any of the following ways:

A.        In Government owned office building:

            (i)         Where guest house is a part of the building;

      (ii)         Where accommodation can be spared for the guest house from the available space. In this case proper justification about sparabilty space should be provided;

B.        Rented office building:

(i)         For housing Guest House in a rented building specific permission of the Competent Authority should be taken. Ministry’s letter F.No. 207/44/97- Ad.VIII (EC) dated 02-04-1998 refers.

 (ii) Lease period left should not be below  3 years.

C.        In Residential complex:

            (i)          Where accommodation for a guest house is in original plan;

(ii)         By converting residential flats into a guest house if the Estate Officer certifies that conversion of residential flat(s) will not affect adversely demand of residential flat at the station.

D.        In accommodation purchased/ leased on rent for a guest house:

By hiring accommodation in terms of welfare rule 2(d) which reads as “Construction/hiring/leasing of holiday homes in places of tourist/pilgrimage interest and departmental guest house in Metropolitan cities and other important cities for the use of departmental staff.”

3.         Suggested Scale of Accommodation:

* In case of constraints of space rooms with common toilet/ bathroom may also be considered.

4.         In the interest of creating convivial environment in the Guest Houses, preferably there should be separate Guest House for each Sl.no. as given in table above. However, for reasons of economy and/or constraints of space categories 2, 3 and 4 may be combined to the extent required.

5.         Number of rooms in the Guest House should be fixed after considering the load on account of touring officers and status of the station as a place of tourist attraction.

6.         As far as possible Guest House should be set up for all categories of officers in the station.

7.         Funds for civil works in connection with repairs, modifications of the government building are not provided from the welfare fund. Such funds need to be obtained from the Ministry as a normal budgetary grant. Such civil works should be got done through CPWD or other agencies as provided in the rules. Minor modification in private buildings should be got done from the landlord before hiring it. Nature of support from the Welfare fund shall remain restricted to furnishings, gadgets and cutlery etc.

8.         Canons of financial propriety, provisions of GFR and any other instructions / guidelines of the govt. for incurring the expenditure shall be followed to incur expenditure from the assistance provided from the welfare fund.

9.                  Additional Guest House

(i)                 More than one Guest House(s) may be set up if the existing facilities are not sufficient to meet the demand. Existing guest house being under control of some other administrative authority under the CBEC shall not be an acceptable reason for considering additional Guest House.

(ii)               Proposal for additional Guest House should be sent giving full information on existing Guest Houses and arrangements for rent-free accommodation, if any, in hotels, number of rooms for different categories of officers, occupancy position of the existing facilities in terms of room nights for last two years, number of additional rooms for different categories of officers. 

(iii)       Sketch/ lay out plan of proposed accommodation should be forwarded along with the proposal.

10.       Refurbishing/ Up-gradation of existing Guest Houses

(i)         Proposal for up gradation of Guest House may be forwarded in line with these guidelines.

(ii)        Replenishment of various items can also be considered as under:

a)   For perishable items like mattresses, bed sheets, pillow covers, blankets / quilts, towels, curtains, carpets, buckets etc., dining set/ crockery, etc. after the items have become unworthy of use. It is expected that these items shall be able to last for at least one year. A certificate to this effect should be sent with the proposal.

b)   For durable item proposal can be considered after the items become obsolete, unserviceable or beyond economical repairs. The items should be first condemned after following the procedure prescribed in the GFR.

11.       Model List of provisions

            The Guest House may be provided with the following items:

A) Rooms/Suite

B) Drawing Room/ Dining Hall

C) Kitchen

Above lists and prices are indicative only. The actual requirement/number may vary depending on the facts of each case.

12.  Amount of financial assistance:

The total amount of financial assistance shall be worked out based on above scales. The field offices should decide on their needs and prepare estimates after obtaining rates as per prescribed instructions in the GFRs. A note on how the rates have been ascertained along with a copy of the rates should be part of the proposal.

13.       Rules for Allotment:

The guest houses shall be governed by the Departmental Guest House (Indian Customs and Central Excise) Rules 2007.

  Allotment Rules

 Departmental Guest House (Indian Customs and Central Excise) Rules 2007

(i)         These rules may be called the Departmental Guest House (ICE) Rules, 2007.

(ii)        They shall come into force immediately on issuance.

(iii)       In these rules unless the context otherwise requires:-

 “Guest House” includes Holiday Homes, rent free accommodation arranged by the department and any club with residential facility set up by the department;

“Department” means the CBEC and its attached/ subordinate offices;

(iv)       Allotment of the Guest House shall be made by an allotting authority specified by the Chief Commissioner in whose jurisdiction the Guest House is set up. In case of difficulty where the guest house(s) and/or the rent-free accommodation are in jurisdiction of more than one Chief Commissioner the matter may be decided among the Chief Commissioners.

(v)        The Guest House shall remain under control of the Estate Officer or the Head of office in charge of the building in which they are situated.

(vi)       The Directorate of Logistics entrusted with the welfare function shall be the overseeing authority for administration of Guest House. The Directorate shall issue such administrative instructions as considered necessary for proper administration, maintenance and up keep of guest house.

 (vii)     Room entitlement for various categories of officers shall be as under:

       # subject to availability of accommodation.

(viii)  Application for allotment should ordinarily be sent to the allotting authority at least 7 days prior to the date on which the guest house accommodation is required ** . In case of urgent visits and emergencies, the controlling officer may exercise discretion in allotting guest

(ix)    Order of priority:  Allotment should be made in the following order of priority:

 First priority to the officials on departmental duty;

 Second priority to the serving departmental officials on private visit;

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