Covid-19 impact: Railways looks to FinMin for pension liabilities

The railways is the only government department which meets the pension expenditure of its retirees from its own receipts.

Hit by a fall in revenue from freight as well as passenger traffic owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian Railways has approached the ministry of finance seeking relief in pension liabilities for the current fiscal year.

For 2020-21, staff cost and pension liabilities totalled aro­und Rs 1.46 trillion for the railways. Of this, staff cost was aro­und Rs 92,993 crore while pe­n­sion bill stood at Rs 53,000 crore.

The cumulative revenue from freight, sundry and passenger segments was down to Rs 53,725 crore, a fall of Rs 34,257 crore, during the six months ending September 2020. This was 39