New Delhi: The Indian Railways’ operating ratio of 98.36 per cent in 2019-2020 does not reflect its true financial performance and if the actual expenditure on pension payments is taken into account, the ratio will be 114.35 per cent, according to a CAG report.
Operating ratio (OR) represents the ratio of working expenses to traffic earnings and a higher ratio indicates poorer ability to generate surplus.
The Railways, facing a financial crunch over Rs 50,000 crore outgo as pension to more than 15.5 lakh former railway employees, has been consistently asking the finance ministry to relieve it of the pension burden by setting up a pension fund.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report, which was tabled in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, also noted that against a target of 95 per cent in the budget estimates, the OR of the Indian Railways was 98.36 per cent in 2019-20.
“The OR deteriorated from 97.29 per cent in 2018-19 to 98.36 per cent in 2019-20. Further, the OR of the Railways would have been 114.35 per cent instead of 98.36 per cent, if the actual expenditure on pension payments was taken into account,” the report stated.
Thus, the OR of 98.36 per cent shown by the Railways does not reflect its true financial performance, it stated.
During 2019-20, the Indian Railways generated total receipts of Rs 1,74,694 crore against budget estimates of Rs 2,16,935 crore, the report stated.
It could not achieve even the revised estimate target of Rs 2,06,269 crore, the report mentioned.
The total receipts decreased by 8.30 per cent during 2019-20 as compared to the previous year, it said.
“There was heavy dependence on transportation of coal which constituted around 49 per cent of the total freight earnings during 2019-20. Any shift in bulk commodities transport pattern could affect the freight earnings significantly,” it stated.
As on March 31, 2020, shares of five Railway PSUs (CONCOR India Limited, IRCON International Limited, RITES Limited, IRCTC Limited and RVNL), were listed on various stock exchanges in India, the report stated.
The total value of market capitalisation of the shares of these Railway PSUs as on 31 March, 2020, was Rs 48,337 crore, it said.
“The overall profits of the Railway PSUs during the past three years had increased from Rs 4,999 crore (2017-18) to Rs 6,536 crore (2019-20),” it mentioned. Out of 40 Railway PSUs, 30 had earned profits after tax during 2019-20, the report noted.
“Eleven Railway PSUs had declared dividend amounting to Rs 1,856 crore during the year,” it said.
Return on Equity (RoE) of the Railway PSUs had steadily decreased from 9.17 per cent in 2017-18 to 7.53 per cent in 2019-20, the report mentioned.
PTI
