| Squeeze on margins despite higher haulage
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| In April-September 2003, the Railways carried 7.4 per cent more freight than the corresponding period last year, but it earned 5.33 per cent less per tonne than what it did last year, indicating a squeeze on its margins.
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| According to official figures, the Railways realised Rs 49.39 crore per million tonne in the first half of the current financial year compared with Rs 52.18 crore per million tonne during April-September 2002.
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| In fact, the realisation is 4 per cent lower than the budgeted target of Rs 51.50 crore per million tonne.
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| The Railways earned Rs 13,159.82 crore from 266.43 million tonnes of freight traffic during the first half of 2003-04.
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| While traffic grew 7.4 per cent over the 247.87 million tonnes of cargo hauled during the corresponding period in the last financial year, earnings rose a mere 1.75 per cent from the Rs 12,932.99 crore realised during April-September 2002.
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| The Railways had set a target of Rs 27,815 crore in revenue receipts and 540 million tonnes in freight traffic for the current financial year.
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| If the present trend continues, the Railways may miss the budgeted revenue target for the year by Rs 500-Rs 800 crore.
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| Railway officials told Business Standard that earnings growth had not kept pace with traffic growth because of the rationalisation of the freight structure over the past two years.
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| The very purpose of freight rationalisation seems to have been defeated as the rise in volumes have not translated in to revenue growth.
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| While the yield per million tonne has declined across all categories of freight, except foodgrains, there has been a decline in total tonnnage and earnings for fertilisers and petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) only.
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| This year, petrol freight dropped 10.7 per cent. Earnings from POL during the first six months of 2003-04 dipped 5.12 per cent to Rs 9,096 crore from Rs 9,587 crore in the corresponding period in the last financial year.
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| Officials said the Railway Budget initiative had failed to check the loss of business to pipelines, which were still 20-25 per cent cheaper than the Railways. |
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