TRAVEL 8.1 Objective & Spirit of the Travel Policy The travel policy is intended to facilitate travel for business purposes while optimizing costs and maintaining efficient business processes. The travel policy outlines the entitlements related to business travel and the general guidelines to be followed for claiming reimbursements of travel expenses. 8.2 Applicability The travel policy applies to all existing employees at PI Industries including consultants and contractual staff. Contractual staff in Agri-business Market Development Officer (FTC) shall be eligible for the entitlements of E1 grade, for other business the entitlement is on the basis of grade of the employee. 8.3 Code of Conduct It is the responsibility of all employees at PI Industries to follow the twin values of cost consciousness while arranging for travel, and honesty while claiming reimbursements towards travel expenses. The policy is divided into three categories: Local, Domestic & International Travel. Before undertaking any tour, the Employee must obtain prior sanction from the Reporting Manager by submitting travel intimation in MyPI. Reimbursement forms must be duly supported by relevant vouchers / bills / air travel boarding passes / hotel bills / food bills etc. All original bills which are printed on thermal paper are to be photocopied and attached with the claim. In case of loss of original bill, employees should attach a duplicate copy of the same for reimbursement. If no duplicate bill is available, this will be tracked as exception and would require the approval of Business Head/ Function Head. 8.4 Local Travel 8.4.1 Scope Local travel pertains to intra city business travel, either in the base location or in another city. The entitlements mentioned herein are not applicable for travel from your home to office location in the base location. 8.4.2 Eligibility You are entitled to use mode of travel as specified in Table below. In case employee uses his/ her own vehicle for intra city travel, he/ she shall be reimbursed fuel expenses at the below mentioned rates. Level Grade Mode of Transport Fuel Rates T2 & T1 Company Car/Any Taxi Sr. Management S1 to S4 M1 & M2 Radio Taxi/Taxi/Company car Radio Taxi/Taxi Four Wheeler Rs. 8 per km Junior Management J1 to J3 Public Transport, Auto, Radio Taxi*/Taxi* Executive/Office/ Associate E1 to E4; AO1 to AO3; A1 to A3 Public Transport, Auto Rickshaw Two wheeler Rs.3.5 per km *Radio Taxis/Taxi can be used only if public transport / Auto not available or distance is more than 20 km 23 Effective: April 1, 2016
8.4.3 Claims All travel claims shall be processed by the Shared Services Team. The shared services should ensure that travel bills of Agri-business Sales/Product Evaluation/Marketing staff, who are allowed company vehicles are cross verified with Vehicle Tracking System reports. The shared services should ensure that monthly running of company vehicle of Agri-business Sales/PD/Marketing staff is as per standard limit & also their claim for driver expenses / toll etc. is as per TABLE III. In case of Radio Taxi/ Taxi, actual bills should be submitted for amount exceeding INR 500 (per ride). 8.5 Domestic Travel 8.5.1 Scope Domestic travel pertains to intercity business travel outside your base location. 8.5.2 Eligibility criteria and general guidelines Employees should seek the agreement of their Reporting Manager that there is a business need to travel before making any travel plans. All travel should be booked as far in advance as practical to allow air tickets and hotel accommodation to be purchased as economically as possible. Employees are encouraged to book their tickets 7 days or more ahead of the departure. Should travel plans change, travellers/travel arrangers are responsible for cancelling or changing the reservations, to avoid partial or total loss of air tickets or incurring hotel cancellation charges. All travel requests must be applied in MyPI minimum 24 hours before the start of trip. In case an exception should be completed within 3 days of the trip, any travel request beyond 3 days will need business/functional head approval. All entitlements related to domestic travel are based on the cities travelled to. Cities are classified as A, B and C. Please refer TABLE I for classification of cities. 8.5.3 Travel tickets Mode of travel should be selected as per entitlement, until or unless due to exigency employee has been asked to take a higher mode of travel. In such cases, exceptions would be routed to Business head/functional head. Employees are encouraged for booking their air tickets & hotel thru' the company designated travel agent as arranged by the administration department of unit/business. The charges for missed travel on scheduled date/ no show tickets will be debited in employee's account. The Employee has to claim it separately for approval from Business Head/ Functional Head as the case may be. Employees are encouraged to return unutilized tickets to the company 24 hours before the departure time for cancellation and obtaining refunds. The Employee has to claim it separately and obtain approval from Business Head/ Functional Head as the case may be. When employee travels by a lower class than entitlement, he/ she can claim reimbursement only for class travelled. The Employee is entitled to use mode of travel as specified in Table below. Level Sr. Management Junior Management/ Executives Officer/Associates Grade T2 & T1 S1 to S4 M1 & M2 J1 to J3, E1 to E4 AO1 to AO3, A1 to A3 Mode of Transport Air Economy, Train 1 AC/2 AC Air Economy, Train 1 AC/2 AC (Low cost airline where available, Full Service Carrier only if Low cost not available or fare is lower) Train 2AC/3AC/CC, Volvo Bus For Distance above 500 km - First preference is night train, next is low cost airline 2nd class Train/3AC/CC/ Deluxe Bus Effective: April 1, 2016 24
When on business travel, any excess charges incurred in the form of airport tax, excess luggage on account of company's files or samples, claims for reimbursement can be submitted with proper bills and rationale. For Intercity travel, uses of taxi/personal vehicle by employees (except for grade S1 and above grade) as mode of travel, is not permitted. All exceptions have to be routed through business head/functional head. 8.6 Accommodation 8.6.1 Stay at hotel The following are the limits for hotel rentals, inclusive of taxes: Level Grade Limits for Hotel City A City B City C T1 & T2 8,000 6,000 5,000 Senior Management S1 to S2 7,000 5,000 4,000 Junior Management Executive M1 to M2 J1 to J3 E1 to E4 4,000 3,000 2,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 Officer / Associate AO1 AO3 A1 to A3 1,500 1,200 900 Employees travelling together can share lodging. The lodging limits will be the sum of the individuals lodging limits. The person settling the hotel bill shall claim the reimbursement and shall mention the name of the other person who had shared the lodging. The other person sharing the lodging cannot claim reimbursement for lodging. Employees should settle their bills prior to checking out of the hotel and signing of bills on company's behalf is not allowed. 8.6.2 Stay at the company guest house The eligibility criteria for stay at company guest house which will be provided on the basis of first come first serve is as follows: th I. At Panoli guest house, employees in Grade S3 to T2 can stay on the 8 floor and others on th 4 floor. ii. iii. iv. At Udaipur guest house, there is no floor allotted for particular grade. The guest house availability must be checked with the Administration Department in advance before travelling. If guest house is not available, the employee may book hotels as per the available rates. 8.6.3 Stay with family or friends You are encouraged to stay with family or friends during business travel. In such cases, you can claim an allowance at the rates mentioned below without production of bills for the purpose of gifts to family/ friend. This can be availed for each trip to a given location when stay is availed with family / friend. This allowance is independent of the days of stay. - Rs. 1500/- Senior Management - Rs. 1000/- - Rs. 500/- Junior Management and below - Rs. 350/- 25 Effective: April 1, 2016
8.7 Daily Allowance (DA) and Incidentals The Employee is allowed to claim DA for reimbursements towards food and incidentals while on business travel as per table given below. Entitlements for incidental expenses are 20% of DA as mentioned in table below, 80% of DA is towards food expenses. Level Grade Limits for DA City A City B City C T1 & T2 3,000 3,000 3,000 Senior Management S1 to S4 2,000 2,000 2,000 M1 to M2 1,100 1,000 750 Junior Management J1 to J3 750 600 500 Executive E3 to E4 E1 to E2 600 500 500 450 400 350 Officer / Associate AO1 to AO3, A1 to A3 400 300 250 8.7.1 Eligibility criteria for claiming DA DA shall be paid as per following rules for journey undertaken outside the headquarters/ place of posting by any employee. The computation of DA will be made on the basis of total time spent on travel as calculated from the time of leaving the first destination and time of arrival at the last destination. S. NO. Time Spend Rate of DA% 1 More than 8 hours, less than or equal to 16 hours 50% 2 More than 16 hours, less than or equal to 24 hours 100% 3 More than 4 hours, less than 8 hours (Applicable only in case of continuous journey spanning more than one day) 30% Plant employees travelling between Panoli, Jambusar & Vadodara & returning the same day to their headquarters would not be eligible for any DA. Similarly corporate employee travelling in NCR i.e. Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad & returning the same day to their Headquarters would not be eligible for any DA. If attending any company sponsored meeting, conference, function, training program, workshop, monthly meetings, group meetings conducted at corporate office, factory or any other location, employees can claim proportionate DA ( 20% DA for breakfast, 30% DA for lunch, 30% DA for dinners) for meals that are not sponsored by the Company. In case all meals are provided, employee can only claim 20% DA as incidental expenses. While attending annual conference where all facilities are arranged by the company, no claims can be made towards reimbursements for food or incidentals. When staying in guest house at Panoli & Udaipur, employees are entitled to claim only 20% DA for incidentals. Effective: April 1, 2016 26
When staying with family/friends, employees are entitled to claim 100% DA. For the list of territories as mentioned in TABLE-II, junior management & below level employees are eligible for special DA Rs.150/- for travelling 8 hours or more with one break instead of DA listed in the table above. 8.7.2 Claiming of DA DA for Junior Management and below can be claimed without production of bills. DA for Middle management and above grade employees will be paid at actuals on production of bills subject to a maximum of 80% of DA. However, they can claim 20% DA as incidentals without production of bills. 8.8 Imprest Entitlement For employees in sales and marketing function, employees frequently travelling for company work can be provided an imprest as below and thereafter reimbursement will be made on bill to bill basis: Employees in grades M1 to S1 are eligible for Rs.30,000 /- Employees in grades A1/O1 to J3 are eligible for Rs.20,000/- Employees in other grades can request for advance after due approval from Functional Head/ Business HR. 8.9 Business Entertainment/ meeting Expenses Business entertainment expenses on Domestic and international trips to be reimbursed on actuals and will not be a part of DA. The bill submitted towards such expenses should have names of the participants written on back of the bill and signed by the Business Head. The employees attending the respective event (entertainment / group meeting) are not eligible to claim any DA for that event. In case the employee ignorantly submits such a claim for such a day, the same shall not be processed. The Accounting Office for the particular location where such bill is submitted should notify the concerned Accounting Office of their locations so as to avoid duplicate payments. 8.10 International Travel 8.10.1 Scope International travel pertains to business travel outside India. 8.10.2 Eligibility criteria and general guidelines Employees should seek the agreement of their Reporting Manager that there is a business need to travel before making any travel plans. All travel should be booked as far in advance as practical to allow air tickets and hotel accommodation to be purchased as economically as possible. Employees are encouraged to book their ticket 30 days or more ahead of the departure. Should travel plans change, travelers/travel arrangers are responsible for canceling or changing the reservations, to avoid partial or total loss of air tickets or incurring hotel cancellation charges. 8.10.3 Travel tickets Class of travel should be selected as per entitlement, until or unless due to exigency employee has been asked to take a higher class of travel. In such cases, exceptions should be approved by Business Head/Functional Head. Employees are encouraged for booking their air tickets & hotel thru' the company designated travel agent as arranged by the administration department of unit/business. The charges for missed travel on scheduled date/ no show tickets will be debited in employee's account. It is to be claimed separately for approval from business head/functional head as the case may be. 27 Effective: April 1, 2016
Unutilized tickets must be returned to the company immediately for cancellation and obtaining refunds. It is to be claimed separately for approval from business head/functional head as the case may be. When employee travels by a lower class than entitlement, he/ she can claim reimbursement only for class travelled. The Employee is entitled to use mode of travel as specified in below. - Air Travel (Business Class) Senior Management and below - Air economy When on international business travel, any excess charges incurred in the form of airport tax, excess luggage on account of company's files or samples, claims for reimbursement can be submitted with proper bills and rationale. 8.10.4 Accommodation (Boarding & Lodging) The following are the limits for hotel rentals, inclusive of taxes: Level Senior Management Junior Management Grade T1 & T2 S1 to S4 M1 to M2 J1 to J3 Hotel Tariff & Boarding in US$ / day Europe & Japan USA & Australia Asia Pacific 240 210 180 210 180 160 210 180 160 140 120 115 Executive Officer / Associate A1-A3,AO1- AO3, E1-E4 105 90 80 Employees traveling together can share lodging. The lodging limits will be the sum of the individuals lodging limits. The person settling the hotel bill shall claim the reimbursement and shall mention the name of the other person who had shared the lodging. The other person sharing the lodging cannot claim reimbursement for lodging. Employees should settle their bills prior to checking out of the hotel and signing of bills on company's behalf is not allowed. Employee can claim reimbursements towards boarding and lodging as per actual expenditure on production of bills subject to limits given above. In addition, employee may claim incidentals at $20 per day without production of bills. 8.10.5 Advance entitlement You can avail of travel advance which will be settled against claims as follows: Top & Senior Management - $500 - $350 Junior Management & below - $250 Employees are encouraged to avail overseas travel cards in lieu of travel advance. It is mandatory for everyone taking an advance for foreign travel to submit a declaration of amount spent and return the balance amount on their return to India. 8.10.6 Other guidelines for international travel Reimbursement forms must be duly supported by relevant vouchers/bills / air travel boarding passes. All Effective: April 1, 2016 28
supporting documents/ bills are to be countersigned by the Functional Head before being passed on for payment to the accounts department. Employees are required to submit the credit card bills and charge slips along with the travel expense form. Any loss of cash or other personal property due to negligence will not be borne by the company. Travel insurance purchased can be claimed on actuals on submitting of the invoice copy. Actual expenses on postage and stationary in connection with official work are admissible wherever applicable. 8.11 General Travel Guidelines 8.11.1 Claim submission Guidelines for different business/locations are as under: Agri-Business employee (other than corporate) - The hard copy of the travel claim should be sent to Shared Services Center (SSC), Gurgaon directly through courier within 7 days on completion of the tour and courier tracking number should be updated in MYPI. Corporate employee The hard copy of travel claims should be dropped in the drop box available at 5th floor reception within 7 days on completion of the tour and enters the date & time in the register. Plants & R&D Udaipur employee The hard copy of travel claim should be dropped in the drop box available at reception within 7 days on completion of the tour and enters the date & time in the register. 8.12 Exceptional Approvals All deviations in TA / DA bills and exceptions up to senior management will be approved by the business head /functional heads. For, deviations in TA / DA Bills will be approved by MD. 8.13 Delayed submission of claims If an employee fails to couriered/delivered the travel claim & update the details in MyPI within 7 days from the date of completion of the tour, 5% of total bill amount will be deducted at the time of processing the travel claim & beyond 20 days from the date of completion of the tour, travel claim will not be accepted and the amount already paid will be recovered from his salary. 8.14 Payments All claims received till Thursday of the week will be processed and paid on the forthcoming Monday. TABLE I Classification of Cities Classification Cities A Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Dehradun, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Vijayawada. B Ahmedabad, Allepy, Aligarh, Amravati, Aurangabad, Amritsar, Agra, Allahabad, Bargarh, Burdwan, Bhavnagar, Belgaum, Bhopal, Bhiwandi, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Bareilly, Bhilai Nagar, Coimbatore, Coonoor, Cuttack, Durg, Digha (Midnapur E.), Dindigul, Erode, Imphal (Manipur), Dhanbad, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Guntur, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hubli-Dhanwad, Jamnagar, Jabalpur, Jalandhar, Jodhpur, Jamshedpur, Kota, Kalpeta, Kanpur, Kozhikode, Korba, Kottayam, Kolhapur, Kumali, Kanchipuram, Kodiakanal, Ludhiana, Mysore, Moradabad, Meerut, Mangalore, Madurai, Munnar, Mayiladuthurai, Nasik, Nagpur, Ooty, Puri, Pondicherry, Raipur, Raigarh, Rajkot, Ranchi, Rudrapur, Raurkela, Surat, Sambalpur, Solapur, Salem, Siliguri, Thiruvanathapuram, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli, Tirupathi, Tiruvannamalai, Udaipur, Vishakhapatnam, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vellore, Tanjore, Warangal, Walparai. C All other Cities 29 Effective: April 1, 2016
TABLE II List of Territories for Special DA. Zone South Zone -2 South Zone -1 East Zone-2 North Zone-1 Region South Coastal Andhra North Coastal Andhra Rayalseema North Karnataka South Karnataka Raipur Odhisa Bhatinda Haryana Ludhiana Territory Guntur, Piduguralla Bhimavaram, Rajahmundry, Tadepalligudem Nandyal, Adoni Sindhanoor, Gangavathi, Bellary Davangere Dhamtari, Kurud Attabhira,Sambalpura Mansa,Kotkapur,Bhatinda,Sangrur Jind Patiala TABLE III Entitlement - Driver/Vehicle running/others (Agri business - Sales/PD/Marketing staff) Role ECG/Grade Driver Salary (per day) Driver DA (with night halt) Driver DA (without night halt) Monthly Vehicle Running Limit (in km) Territory Incharge Executive(E1-E4) Jr. Management (J1-J3) 2000.00 Regional Incharge Jr. Management (J2-J3) (M1-M2) 2500.00 Marketing Manager Jr. Management (J2-J3) (M1-M2) 307.00 155.00 100.00 Product Development Manager Executive(E1-E4) Jr. Management (J2-J3) Mid Management (M1-M2) 4000.00 Zonal Incharge Sr. Management (S1-S2) 355.00 Other claims for reimbursement of fuel, toll, courier & parking will be on actuals (subject to production of bills). Effective: April 1, 2016 30