Railways earns from freight; spends little on development

Sixtyfive paise of every rupee Indian Railways earned in 2007-08 came from transporting goods and just 27 paise from ferrying passengers, but the world's largest railway under a single management spent just three paise on development.     

The country's largest employer, with over 1.4 million workers, spent 25 paise of each rupee on wages and other allowances to staff and 11 paise towards pension liability, according to the Railway Budget 2009-10 presented by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in Parliament today.     

Of each Rupee earned by the Railway, 17 paise was spent on fuel, while capital fund accounted for 15 paise.     

Other major expenditure included miscellaneous expenditure of eight paise, depreciation reserve fund and dividend seven paise each and stores four paise.     

Lowest expenditure of just three paise was earmarked towards development fund.     

On the income side, Railways earned as much as 92 paise of every Rupee from passenger fare and goods traffic. Of this, as much as 65 paise of each rupee came from goods traffic, followed by 27 paise from passenger earnings during 2007-08, the Railway Minister said in Lok Sabha.     

Indian Railways also earned four paise from sundry other earnings, while miscellaneous receipt and other coach earnings contributed two paise each to every Rupee earned.