The railways freight movement figures appear to have gone into a loop. Theres a wide gulf between the official figures and those put out in an internal document that works out to a mammoth Rs 150 crore. An official release put out by the Rail Bhavan puts the freight earning figures in 1996-97 at Rs 16,786.97 crore. However, an internal document puts this figure at Rs 16,637.47 crore only Rs 149.29 crore lower than the figure dished out officially.Another aspect of this interesting phenomenon is that it has taken an unusually long time for the railways to finalise the freight movement figures for the month of March, the terminal month of the financial year 1996-97. In contrast, the Rail Bhavan has been quick to finalise the figures in this respect of April, that is, the figures pertaining to the next month.
Officials said the March figures were still being worked out. Insiders said, however, the reason is the usual year-end Rail Bhavans dilemma over how to perform the balancing exercise. The railways had proclaimed that the 1996-97 freight movement target would be 410 million tonne but actually it fell short when the year ended, which led to a scrambel to re-work the figures triggering suspicion that the figures were being fudged.However, the Railways has admitted that the actual freight movement has been 409.05 million tonne s only 0.95 million tonnes, short of the target. There are dicrepancies even in figures concerning the budget estimates on the freight earning.The estimate of freight earning in 1996-97, according to the internal document, is Rs 16,637.47 crore. The achievement, according to figures released officially, is Rs 16,786.76 crore. According to the railway budget placed on February 24, this estimate is high at Rs 16,650 crore, and according to the internal document, it is Rs 16,590 crore.
So, which of the three figures is correct? The answer hinges on how the railways have fared in respect of its freight revenue performance.
