LAHORE: The seven operational divisions of the Pakistan Railways (PR) have yet to clear Rs1,284.762 million dues under various heads of station outstanding up to the last quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The anomaly has been pointed out in a letter sent by the PR financial adviser and chief accounts officer (revenue) to the chief executive officer of the organisation, the Railways Board member finance and other principal officers.

The outstanding sum included admitted debits of Rs30.202 million in all the operational divisions up to June 30, 2018.

Also dispatched to the divisional superintendents of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Sukkur in December last year, the letter had sought clearance of the outstanding amount, especially the admitted debits, which are required to be recovered from the staff concerned within seven days.

The PR commercial manual says station outstanding is the amount for which a station master becomes accountable up to the close of the month as the liability is not liquidated either by remittance of cash or vouchers or by taking special credits as authorised under the rules. Admitted debits are the amount which are agreed as debit by the staff concerned and are raised after checking of monthly returns by accounts officers (revenue) due to short or non-account amounts.

According to the letter, Karachi division has an outstanding amount of Rs1,048.161 million (Rs17.986 million in passenger and Rs1,030.175 million in goods), Lahore division Rs27.714 million (Rs10.481 million in passenger, Rs5.648 million in goods and Rs11.585 million in dry port), Rawalpindi division Rs59.603 million (Rs1.980 million in passenger, Rs56.567 million in goods and Rs1.056 million in dry port), Peshawar division Rs1.445 million (Rs0.060 million in passenger and Rs0.015 million in goods Rs1.370 million in dry port), Quetta division Rs3.353 million (Rs3.190 million in passenger, Rs0.163 million in goods), Multan division Rs140.038 million (Rs9.465 million in passenger, Rs130.204 million in goods and Rs0.369 million in dry port) and Sukkur Rs4.448 million (Rs3.223 million in passenger and Rs1.225 million in goods).

The station outstanding for the quarter ending on March 31, 2018, had decreased to Rs692.010 million as against Rs1,077.403 million for the quarter ending on Dec 31, 2017, for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2018