LAHORE: The cash-starved Pakistan Railways (PR) earned more and without taking into consideration its financial health spent more during the first half of the ongoing fiscal compared to corresponding period of last year.

The PR had a shortfall of Rs11.46 billion in the first half of 2014-15 which rose to Rs14.13 billion in the same period of 2015-16, says a letter recently sent by the PR financial adviser and chief accounts officer to the Ministry of Railways and the chief executive officer of the organisation.

From July 1 to Dec 31, 2014, the PR earned Rs14.90bn and spent Rs26.35bn while from July 1 to Dec 31, 2015, the earnings remained Rs17.58bn and expenses Rs31.71bn.

The earning figures have no mention of the money in suspense account -- an account in the general ledger in which amounts are temporarily recorded.

The expense figures do not include interest on foreign loans and the Rs40bn over draft drawn from the State Bank of Pakistan, appropriation to depreciation reserve fund besides repayment of foreign loans on replacement and capital accounts.

Improvement and welfare besides other revenue expenditures constituted a major chunk of spending with the former increasing from Rs4.7bn in 2014-15 to Rs34.42bn in 2015-16 and the latter from Rs8.12bn to Rs12.10bn.

The general administration cost has gone up from Rs3.70bn to Rs4.72bn.

Interestingly, operating expenses decreased from Rs8.67bn to Rs8.46bn while repair and maintenance spending increased from Rs5.84bn to Rs6.38bn, said the letter.

On the revenue side, the PR earned more in 2015-16 than the corresponding period of previous year.

By transporting more freight and goods, the PR earned Rs1.27bn more -- from Rs3.75bn in 2014-15 to Rs5.03bn in 2015-16; from passengers it earned Rs2.05bn more -- from Rs8.18bn to Rs10.24bn; in other coaching sector the earning was Rs140.045m more -- from Rs559.672m to Rs699.717m while from military traffic the earnings were Rs77.232m more -- from Rs360.972m to Rs438.204m.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2016