Non-observance of rating and routing instructions of Railway Board resulted in undercharge of Rs.1.13 crore during April 2001 to February 2003
According to General Order No.1 of 2000 (effective from 1 December 2000) issued by Railway Board, food grains traffic from stations of Northern Railway to stations on Chheoki-Jabalpur section of Central Railway was to be booked, routed and charged via Chheoki while traffic to stations reached via New Katni-Bilaspur, Bilaspur-Rourkela, Bilaspur-Gondia and Bilaspur-Vizianagaram (excluding) sections of South Eastern Railway was to be booked, routed and charged via Chheoki-Katni. Similarly, traffic for stations of South Eastern Railway reached via Kharagpur-Waltair section and Cuttack was to be booked, routed and charged via Mughalsarai-Gomoh section and Barang-Kapilas Road bye-pass avoiding Cuttack respectively.
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review by Audit of outward traffic of 36 stations on Northern Railway, inspected from time to time, revealed that food grain traffic from these stations to various stations on Central and South Eastern Railways during April 2001 to February 2003 had not been booked and charged by the routes specified in the above mentioned General order.
Thus, failure of the station staff to observe rating and routing instructions issued by Railway Board resulted in short collection of revenue amounting to Rs.1.13 crore during April 2001 to February 2003.
The matter was brought to the notice of Railway Administration in May 2003.
The Railway Administration in their reply of September 2003 and during discussion held in October 2003 stated that:
Out of undercharge of Rs.1.13 crore pointed out by Audit, an undercharge of Rs.0.22 crore had already been pointed out by Inspectors of Commercial Branch and advised to Accounts Office.
The remaining undercharges had been/were being advised to the concerned Railways for recovery.
The reply is not tenable because Railway Administration did not furnish to Audit details of undercharge stated to have been detected by Inspectors of Commercial Branch and of those advised to the concerned Railways for recovery. Railway Administration also did not spell out whether there was any system in place to monitor and ensure recovery of such undercharges advised to the concerned destination Railways.