Fuel allowance – Despite the rise in flexible working, most of your workforce likely commutes to work most days, many of which are by car. Not only does this significantly impact the environment due to harmful emissions, but it can also strain your employees’ finances. With the cost of fuel and transport consistently rising, employees have to part with a more considerable proportion of their hard-earned salaries just to get to work. This can be a cause of stress and can have an impact on employees’ financial well-being and engagement, so it’s helpful to provide support where possible.
The government has bestowed organisations with authority to choose the best benefits and rewards that can help employees save income tax. Some of the most common benefits include fuel allowance, mobile and internet allowance, leave travel allowance, meal vouchers, gift vouchers and more.
What is Fuel Allowance?
In simple terms, fuel allowance is applicable for every employee using a company-owned or private vehicle for official purposes. If your company is yet to offer an allowance, now is the right time to find out why you should introduce it. After all, it makes perfect sense to offer benefits that employees would willingly prefer to opt for.
Benefits of Fuel Allowance for Employees
There are several pros to implementing company fuel allowances for employees besides their obvious relevance and convenience.
Hassle-free Payments
When employees need to fill up, they simply need to hand over the fuel card at the cash point. There is no need to carry a debit/credit card, cash or any other mode of payment; the fuel card is the only thing needed to get their tanks filled up. The fuel card company will bill the company directly with a group invoice for purchases from all employees, so it’s a hassle-free option for all parties concerned.
No Paperwork
Without fuel cards, employees are required to keep paperwork showing how much they spent on everything. This typically means keeping receipts from fuel stations, which is an inconvenience and an administrative headache. Because fuel card companies share detailed invoices with employers, there’s no need to keep the receipts.
Smart Offering
In today’s dynamic work conditions, fair employee experience is critical. This includes convenience, speed, ease and suitability. And digital claims will help employers address all of these requirements. Moreover, it’ll not only ease processes but also help achieve the desired outcome by bringing all fuel claims —diesel/petrol allowance, vehicle maintenance and driver’s salary — under one digital platform.
Automated Processing
Use technology to automate critical processes such as managing multiple vendors, keeping up with audits, offering different benefits under one platform, and more. With digital platforms, you can obtain regular audit updates, track employee spending, manage vendors and more with just a few clicks. And, of course, all this can be done by going paperless and without any manual intervention.
Making the Most of Benefits
As a business leader/HR manager, it’s your prerogative to choose the most relevant benefits that your employees find helpful and can make claims easily.
Sodexo BRS, India, designs compelling employee experiences to help people feel engaged, motivated and cared for. Their unique solutions allow employee engagement in a way that feels easy, flexible and highly personal. They offer fully-digitised Employee Benefit Solutions to manage multiple benefits such as Fuel allowances for employees, Meals, Gifting, Telecom, and much more! Sodexo’s Multi-Benefit Pass offers a host of benefits to employees:
- 100% paperless management of spending and claims.
- No need to carry multiple cards. Employees can avail of all their benefits with just one card.
- Tax savings of up to ₹75,000 a year for every employee.
- Additional savings of ₹8,000 through exclusive deals.
- Greater freedom of choice to enjoy other benefits over RuPay’s nationwide network.
Related Article : Future Trends in Employee Benefits
