Railways inflicted Rs187bn losses on national kitty in 5 years, Senate told

LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) inflicted losses to the tune of Rs187 billion on the national exchequer over the last five years, the Senate was informed on Wednesday.

According to statistics disclosed on the floor of the upper house of parliament, the railways posted the highest ever deficit of Rs50.15 billion during the last fiscal year (2019-20).

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It’s losses stood at Rs32.76 billion during financial year 2018-19, whereas, fiscal year 2017-18 saw the national entity incurring losses to the tune of Rs36.62 billion. It brought on Rs40 billion deficit during FY2016-17 and Rs26.99 billion during FY2015-16.

Last month, the Supreme Court had given the government four more weeks to overhaul the loss-making Pakistan Railways in order to turn it into a profit-making national entity. Headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, an apex court bench, had taken up a suo motu case pertaining to financial losses the Railway department has been inflicting on the national kitty.

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The SC extended the deadline for an overhaul of the railways on a request by the Planning Commission.