Railways spends 42 pc earnings on staff wages

New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) Indian Railways, the country''ssingle largest employer, spends 42 per cent of its revenue onstaff wages and allowances, while almost two-third of itsearnings come from moving goods.

Railways in 2009-10 spent 42 paisa out of every rupee itearned towards paying staff wages and allowances and another17 paisa for meeting pension fund obligations.

Fuel is the third biggest expenditure head with 16 percent of revenues going towards that, as per 2009-10 figures.

Railways earned 65 per cent (or 65 paisa of every rupee)from Goods Traffic (transporting items like coal). Itsearnings from passenger tickets was 26 paisa.

Banerjee has projected 10 per cent increase in freightearnings in 2011-12 at Rs 68,620 crore as against Rs62,489.33 crore revenues from moving goods this fiscal.

Most of the freight revenue came from transporting coal -Rs 24,127.77 crore (in 2009-10), while moving cement earned itRs 5,668.27 crore, foodgrains Rs 4,358.82 crore, fertiliser Rs3,606.37 crore, petroleum products Rs 3,473.20 crore andcontainer services brought Rs 3,208.67 crore to its kitty.

Despite no increase in fares, she projects a 16.57 percent rise in earnings in passenger traffic at Rs 30,456 crorein 2011-12 as against Rs 26,126.47 crore this year.

Railway''s depreciation reserve fund consumed 2 per centof the revenues while it paid 6 paisa out of every rupee asdividend to the government. Lease charges and stores consumedfour paisa each while nine paisa has been accounted asmiscellaneous expenditure.