Gujarat chief secretary J N Singh has warned officials that they may forfeit their April salary if they are found to have not filed their annual property returns by April 10. "Salaries of Class 1 and Class 2 employees of the state government for April, payable in May, will be withheld if they have not filed their annual property returns," Singh told reporters in Gandhinagar last Saturday. He said that withholding salaries was the first step and going forward promotions, training and empanelment could also be affected, Singh said that around 3,000 of the 10,000-12,000 Class 1 and Class 2 officers of the state government had not yet filed their returns for the financial year 2017-18. "The general administration department has written to the finance department, asking it to withhold salaries of these employees. We hope these officers will file the property returns in the next week. If they do so, we may consider releasing their salary," he said. "We are very clear that employees here will have to file annual property returns, as those in the all-India services do," he said.