Profit and Loss of Indian Railways

Profit and Loss of Indian Railways

An interesting question was asked by the member of Parliament and the Ministry has replied to the question of profit and loss of the Indian Railways during the last three years. The statement says that the Indian Railways have not incurred any loss in the last three years. Indian Railways infact generated a surplus of Rs 0.75 crore in 2009-10; Rs 1,404.89 crore in 2010-11; Rs 1,125.57 crore in 2011-12, and have set a surplus target of Rs 10,409.13 crore in 2012-13.

Indian Railways have taken both non-tariff measures and tariff measures to improve its financial position as indicated below:-

Non-tariff Measures :-

They include improving throughput by increased productivity and efficiency, reduction in wagon turnaround time, extension of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) and Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) facilities to more and more locations, speeding up of trains, review of trains with low patronage, deployment of additional coaches in well patronized trains, vigorous checking of ticket-less travel, additional leasing of parcel space in certain nominated trains, leasing of vacant compartment of guard in front SLR coach etc. In addition, efforts to improve staff productivity by better man power planning, better asset utilization, improvement in inventory management, optimizing fuel consumption etc. and controlling expenditure through number of austerity/economy measures are continuously being pursued.

Tariff Measures :-

They include simplification and rationalization of freight/fare structure besides several other measures like introduction of Freight Incentive Schemes for retaining the existing traffic and also for attracting additional traffic, introduction of Incentive Schemes for improving parcel traffic.

Railways have a large shelf of ongoing works, many of which are progressing at a slow pace mainly because of Railway’s inability to provide funding support at required levels.

Instructions already exist to regulate commitments consistent with availability of funds and for prompt finalization of admissible bills. In the event of shortage of funds, efforts are made to provide additional funds by re-appropriation from other activities so that contractors’ claims are settled expeditiously.