PSUs come to the rescue of Indian Railways from showing a negative balance - CAG


By MYBRANDBOOK


PSUs come to the rescue of Indian Railways from showing a negative balance - CAG

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament on Monday said that advances from public sector units saved the Indian Railways from showing a negative balance of over ₹5,500 crore in 2017-2018.

 

The Railways would have ended the year with a negative balance of ₹5,676.29 crore instead of the surplus of ₹1,665.61 crore, had it not been for the advance received from NTPC and Ircon, the report said.

 

In March 2018, while NTPC paid the Railways ₹5,000 crore as advance for moving freight in 2018-19, Ircon paid ₹2,580 crore as advance towards sale or lease of land it would put through in the future, the report said. These advances were added to IR’s earnings of 2017-18.

 

Without these receipts the Operating Ratio would have surged to 102.66 per cent. The Operating Ratio of 98.44 per cent was the worst in the last ten years, said the report.

 

The Operating Ratio is a number that denotes the amount the Railways has to spend to earn every ₹100. Higher the ratio, less profitable is the Railways

.

The transport behemoth’s revenues were also hit because dividend payouts by Railway PSUs, accruing to IR till 2016-17, moved to the Consolidated Fund of India from 2017-18, the CAG report further said.

 

The Railways was unable to meet its operational cost of passenger and other coaching services. The only exceptions were AC three-tier and AC chair-car segments, which made operational profits.

 

One of the factors responsible for this is the free/concessional fare ticket/pass and Privilege Ticket Order (PTOs) issued to various beneficiaries. Also, the response to the ‘Give Up’ scheme from the senior citizen segment was not encouraging, the report said. Almost 89.7 per cent of the revenue forgone on this count was due to concessions extended to senior citizen and privilege pass holders.

 E-Magazine 
 VIDEOS  Placeholder image

Copyright www.mybrandbook.co.in @1999-2024 - All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. is prohibited.
Other Initiatives : www.varindia.com | www.spoindia.org