Railways Suffers Loss Of Rs 68,269 Crore In Passenger Services In 2021-21: CAG

Indian Railways suffered a loss of Rs 68,269 crore in passenger services during 2021-22, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its latest report.

The entire profit of Rs 36,196 crore from freight traffic was utilised to cross-subsidise or compensate the loss on operation of passenger and other coaching services, according to the CAG report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday (8 August).

The Railways recorded an operating ratio of 107.39 per cent in 2021-22, which indicates a lower ability of the national transporter to generate surplus, the CAG said in a report.

The CAG’s report on railways finances provides an analytical review of the finances and accounts of the Indian Railways and is based on the audited accounts for the financial year ended 31 March, 2022.

The loss of Rs 32,073 crore from passenger operations was left uncovered during 2021-22, the report said.

The Railways’ operating ratio, which represents the ratio of working expenses to traffic earnings, was 107.39 per cent in 2021-22 against 97.45 per cent in 2020-21.

A higher ratio indicates lower ability to generate surplus. The Indian Railways could not generate net surplus during 2021-22 as it had done in 2020-21, with an operating ratio of 97.45 per cent.

“This was due to higher appropriation to Pension Fund during 2021-22,” it said.

The Ministry incurred around 75.47 per cent of the total working expenses on staff cost, pension payments and lease hire charges on rolling-stock.

The report said that against the revenue receipts of Rs 191,367.01 crore, which was 35.93 per cent more than 2020-21, there was ‘net deficit’ of Rs 15,024.58 crore in 2021-22.

The net deficit was due to the working expenditure to the tune of Rs 206,391.59 crore, which constituted 49.30 per cent increase as compared with previous year.

“Inadequate generation of internal resources resulted in greater dependence on gross budgetary support and extra budgetary resources. The amount of extra budgetary resources was Rs 71,065.86 crore, which represented a decrease of 42.31 per cent as compared with 2020-21,” the CAG said in its report.

It also said that an unsanctioned expenditure of Rs 6,082.77 crore involving 1,937 cases was incurred by the Ministry, which was 1.06 per cent of total expenditure during 2021-22.

The report additionally found that the Railways was not able to follow the guidelines of the government regarding digital payment/limited cash transactions and made cash transactions amounting to Rs 2,395.52 crore from 2017-18 to 2021-22.