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The freight revenue of the Indian Railways (IR) has decreased by10.3% in the first quarter of the FY 16-17 to
` 25,503 compared to last year. It is to be noted that the growth of revenue of IR in 2015-16 was also the lowest in half a decade. The main weakness was falling freight volumes. The freight revenue has been responsible for about three-fifths of the total revenue of the railways in India. The IR revenue in 2015-16 increased only 4.6%, much lower than the 10-19% growth registered in the previous four fiscal years. If the situation continues for long, the plan of capital expenditure will be severely affected. It is true IR revenue never becomes negative. But to keep pace with the growing need of the economy, the lack of funds for capital expenditure has been always short of requirement.

In the first quarter of the current FY 2016-17, passenger volume has also gone down by 0.22% to ` 226.7 crore compared to same period of the FY 2015-16. But the gross passenger revenue has increased by 3.42% compared to the same two periods. The increase in earning from passenger rose mainly due to increase in cancellation charge and higher prices by running of several premium trains and some other measures. The decline of freight is due to lower tonnage of commodities, coal, cement, foodgrains, fertilizers, etc. Actually, several tax rebate schemes have been announced and the positive effects will take time to show. It is also thought that different measures need to be taken to increase the sources of revenue.