Shortfall in revenue recorded over past three years: Railways

There has been a shortfall in revenue for the Railways in the last three years, the ministry of railways informed Parliament on Monday attributing the reason to drop in originating passengers, less loading of freight, very low growth in other coaching revenue and the Coronavirus pandemic during the current fiscal.

Responding to a query in Lok Sabha, Union railway minister PiyushGoyal said that in 2020-21, to end of January 2021, total traffic revenue declined by ₹36,918.86 crore compared to the corresponding period of last year due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, consequential lockdown and partial operation of passenger services.

For the year 2019-20 and 2020-21, Goyal attributed the shortfall in revenue to the adverse impact of Covid 19 pandemic and consequent lockdown on railway operations.

He also said that the refund adjustment of over ₹2,000 crore in sundry revenue to RLDA and the complete shutdown of operations had hit revenue.

He pointed out that remittance of dividend receipts from Railway PSUs to General Revenues which hitherto used to be part of Railways’ sundry revenue and lesser mobilisation under land monetisation also contributed to the shortfall.

Listing the year-wise reasons for the shortfall in revenue, he said that in 2017-18 and 2018-2019 it was the drop in originating passengers – in non-suburban segment and drop in average sub-urban lead in actuals vis-a-vis the revised estimates, less loading in actuals vis-a-vis revised estimates (RE) and very low growth in other coaching revenue which resulted in the shortfall.