The federal government’s new Toshakhana rules have ended the provision that allowed public office holders to retain gifts worth up to $300 after paying their assessed market value, while leaving a committee responsible for deciding whether high-value and diplomatically sensitive gifts qualify for exemption from public auction.
A comparison of the 2023 Toshakhana procedure and the Toshakhana (Management and Regulation) Rules, 2026, shows that the new framework requires public office holders to deposit gifts in Toshakhana when they cannot refuse them on diplomatic or cultural grounds. Gifts eligible for disposal will go through open auctions.
However, the rules exclude antiques and items of cultural or historical significance from auction. The government may also exempt high-value gifts and those considered diplomatically or internationally sensitive from the auction process.
A committee headed by the cabinet secretary will make these decisions, with senior representatives from the Finance, Foreign Affairs, Law and Culture divisions serving on it.
Exemption from auction does not automatically allow a recipient to keep a gift privately. The committee’s decisions on which items qualify for exemption will determine how the government handles valuable gifts that remain outside the auction process.
The 2023 procedure also restricted the private retention of gifts worth more than $300, making them state property. It excluded antiques and gifts with intrinsic historical value from the retention concession. The procedure also required the government to sell gifts unsuitable for retention, donation or display through periodic public auctions.
The 2026 rules introduce additional safeguards for valuation. The Federal Board of Revenue and a private-sector evaluator will assess each gift’s market value. If their valuations differ by more than 25 percent, the government will bring in a third evaluator.
Authorities cannot use a valuation older than three months to set the reserve price, which cannot fall below the assessed market value.
The rules also bar public office holders and their family members from participating in auctions and require live media coverage. The government will publish records of gifts, their assessed values, reserve prices and final auction prices through an online portal, which will receive monthly updates.
However, the portal will not disclose the names or countries of the dignitaries who presented the gifts.
The framework also requires annual third-party audits of gifts received and disposed of through Toshakhana. The government will deposit auction proceeds into a separate account dedicated to primary education for girls in the country’s most underdeveloped areas.
