Luxury cars are ok, but no printers at ONGC
ONGC is cutting costs in some areas, yet senior management can now retire with a luxury car at a significantly reduced cost - subsidised by the company.
On January 3 (2025), ONGC announced the "Own your car" scheme for GGMs and EDs. Under this scheme, executives can buy a car worth up to Rs30 lakh ($34,700) in ONGC's name, then maintain it and use it for official duties.
"The vehicle shall subsequently be bought back by the employee at written down value at the end of its useful life or superannuation, whichever is earlier," says the nine-page order from Vaskar Kumar Barai, general manager of human resources in Dehradun. ONGC's formula states: "The depreciation rate on WDV (written down value) based on the useful life of 5 years and a residual value of 2% is 54.27% per annum."
In other words, the car's value will depreciate by 54% every year. At the end of five years, the car's value will be just Rs62,000 ($700) if the car is worth Rs30 lakh.
The Rs30 lakh value does not include road tax, registration charges, initial insurance premium, and extended warranty charges (maximum up to 5 years). ONGC will reimburse the employee for these additional charges after registering the vehicle.
ONGC stipulates that the car must be a sedan, not an SUV or MUV. Some say this means that the employee will have to rely on other ONGC staff cars for field visits because such visits will not be possible in a sedan.
Other conditions are that the car can only be white, silver, grey or black and less than 4 metres long. Most GGMs have many years left in service, while some EDs have up to five years left.
Even with only two years of service remaining, the officer can buy back the car at a highly reduced rate. Employees benefitting from this scheme can also claim CMRE (Conveyance Maintenance Reimbursement Expenditure).
Last year, on April 25 (2024), the CMRE was revised. For GGMs, the monthly reimbursement was increased from Rs27,965 ($325) to Rs60,210 ($700) and for EDs from Rs27,965 to Rs64,725 ($750).