CAG says Indian Railways resorted to 'window dressing' of working expenses

The Railways has incurred loss of over Rs 16 crore per day due to the farmer agitation in Punjab

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the financial health of Railways for 2018-19 said the national transporter resorted to "window dressing" for presenting the working expenses and operating ratio in a better light.

In a report tabled in the Parliament on September 23, the CAG said against the target of 92.8 percent in the Budget estimates, the operating ratio of Railways was 97.29 percent in 2018-19, which means Railways spent Rs 97.29 to earn Rs 100.

"However, if advance freight of Rs 8,351 crore from NTPC and CONCOR was not included in the earnings of 2018-19, operating ratio would have been 101.77 percent instead of 97.29 percent," it said.

CAG also raised concerns over delays in projects.

"Projects were to be completed during 2015-20. However, due to inefficiency of Zonal Railways and weak monitoring at the Railway Board level, the progress of projects was slow," it said.

During 2018-19, the railways generated total internal earnings of Rs 1,90,507 crore against the targeted internal earnings of Rs 2,01,090 crore, the CAG said in the report.

The CAG report also rapped the national transporter over its handling of the Extra Budgetary Resources (EBR) for financing projects.

"Scrutiny of records relating to 395 projects funded from EBR revealed that 268 projects were still in progress as on March 31, 2019. This had resulted in a blockade of Rs 48,536 crore EBR funds besides defeating the intended objective of generation of revenue for debt servicing. Review of identification and sanction of projects for EBR funding revealed that financially unviable projects were sanctioned," it noted.