CHENNAI: With just three weeks left for filing the annual statement of assets, debts and other liabilities for the year ended December 31, 2025, only 26,520 (3.12%) state government employees have filed it as of October 8.
The low compliance has raised questions among employees, particularly since the chief secretary’s August 5 directive states that submission of the statement would be taken into consideration while preparing panels for promotion.
Chief secretary M Sai Kumar directed all government servants to submit their Statement of Assets, Debts and Other Liabilities through the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS) portal for the year ended December 31, 2025, by October 31, 2026.
The communication also stipulated in future, government employees should submit the statement for the year ending December 31 on or before March 31 of the succeeding year without fail. It further directed the date of filing the statement should be mentioned in the Annual Confidential Report of employees.
More significantly, submission of the statement would be considered while preparing promotion panels. “Non-filing of assets and liabilities within the stipulated time will be treated as a violation of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants’ Conduct Rules, 1973,” the communication said.
The move comes against the backdrop of the TVK government’s repeated emphasis on zero tolerance towards corruption. Asked about the minimal compliance, a senior official told TNIE, “Still, there are three more weeks, and we expect employees will submit it in the coming days.”
On apprehensions among government employees over linking the filing of the statement to promotion-panel preparation, the official said the requirement is not a new measure or a coercive step by the government.
“The directive to file this statement has been there for many decades. It is part of the state government’s efforts to strengthen its database. With the statement submitted by employees, the state government is not going to recheck the details, since it is a voluntary disclosure of assets,” the official said.
M Arunmozhithevan, general secretary of the TN Treasuries and Account Officers’ Association, welcomed linking submission of the statement with promotion-panel preparation, saying the existing rules already implied such a requirement, but that the latest directive had made it explicit.
However, G Venkatesan, president of the TN Secretariat Association, said each department had its own deadline for completing promotion-panel preparation and that the new stipulation could affect certain sections of employees. “The government should give at least six months’ time for filing this statement,” he said.