CHENNAI: Even as the railways earn over 45 to 50 per cent of its revenue through freight, which includes parcel and luggage transportation, it fears that continued incidents of theft and pilferage of goods is likely to hit its revenue.
Railway Protection Force (RPF) which was established primarily to protect properties of railways and goods is finding it difficult to resolve cases of thefts. Instead, the RPF had chosen to understate the value of stolen consignments. This is with a view to avoid bringing the instances to the notice of higher officials.
A recent review by railway board found that many incidents have not been reported to higher officials in RPF and commercial department, owing to undervaluation of the stolen properties. This is mainly because the consignor who books the goods mostly chooses to quote the lowest value of the property in order to evade the percentage fee collected by railways. Taking advantage of this, RPF officials mentioned the lowest value of the property in the First Information Report. As a result, such cases failed to get the attention of top officials in RPF and railways.
In a recent order, Arun Kumar, Director-General of RPF, strictly warned RPF and other railway officials against undervaluing the stolen properties. He said the actual value of stolen properties should be recorded in FIR as per the railway board standing order issued in February 2017 which prescribed the market value of each properties.
“Every effort should be made by RPF to ascertain the actual value of the booked consignment reported stolen and missing. Any deliberate attempt by officials to manipulate and undervalue the stolen booked consignments will be viewed seriously and appropriate action will be taken against officials responsible,” added Arun Kumar, in his direction issued to all railway zones and RPF officials in the country.
While booking goods besides paying the transportation fee, the consignor has to pay the percentage fee for the total value of the property to claim compensation in the event of accidents. For a majority of the consignments, one per cent of total value of goods is being collected as percentage fee. For some, 16 paise is charged per km.
“To evade the percentage fee, many choose to understate the value of the property. The railway officials also accept it since most of the goods materials will have insurance cover by the consignee. The move will not make much differences at the ground level,” said a senior railway official.
According to official records, on an average Southern Railway records Rs 300 crore to Rs 350 crore per month revenue through freight transportation.