Railways spends 42% earnings on staff wages

Indian Railways, the country's single largest employer, spends 42% of its revenue on staff wages and allowances, while almost two-third of its earnings come from moving goods.

Railways in 2009-10 spent 42 paisa out of every rupee it earned towards paying staff wages and allowances and another 17 paisa for meeting pension fund obligations.

Fuel is the third biggest expenditure head with 16% of revenues going towards that, as per 2009-10 figures.

Railways earned 65% (or 65 paisa of every rupee) from Goods Traffic (transporting items like coal). Its earnings from passenger tickets was 26 paisa.

Banerjee has projected 10% increase in freight earnings in 2011-12 at Rs 68,620 crore as against Rs 62,489.33 crore revenues from moving goods this fiscal.

Most of the freight revenue came from transporting coal - Rs 24,127.7 crore (in 2009-10), while moving cement earned it Rs 5,668.27 crore, foodgrains Rs 4,358.8 crore, fertiliser Rs 3,606.37 crore, petroleum products Rs 3,473.20 crore and container services brought Rs 3,208.67 crore to its kitty.

Despite no increase in fares, she projects a 16.57% rise in earnings in passenger traffic at Rs 30,456 crore in 2011-12 as against Rs 26,126.4 crore this year.

Railway's depreciation reserve fund consumed 2% of the revenues while it paid 6 paisa out of every rupee as dividend to the government. Lease charges and stores consumed four paisa each while nine paisa has been accounted as miscellaneous expenditure.