Chapter XX
Check of Traffic Earnings

2001. Introductory.—The revenues of railways accrue mostly from the transport of passengers and goods traffic and is realized through the agency of stations where the transactions originate and are brought to the account. 

2002. Accounts check of traffic earnings.—The essential duty of the Accounts Office in the matter of check of traffic earnings is to see :— 

(1) that the party to whom the service is rendered pays the proper amount;
            (2) that the railway servants receiving payment correctly account for the same; and
            (3) that, if more than one railway renders the service, the amount is properly distributed between them unless otherwise provided for any specific traffic.

2003. It is the duty of the Traffic Accounts Office to issue Carriage Bills for services rendered to Defence, Post & Telegraph, and other department etc. and to realise the Railways' dues from them either in cash or by book transfer as per extant arrangements, and to watch the outstanding-on this account. 

It is also the duty of the Accounts Office to see that the rates and fares prescribed by the Rail­way Administration from time to time for the various classes of traffic are within the maxima and minima fixed by the President. 

2004. Apportionment of earnings between railways.—The earnings from traffic carried over two or more railways are to be shared by them while only one  railway actually receives the money. The apportionment is made on the basis prescribed by the railway Board as indicated in the Chapters dealing with each kind of traffic. 

2005. Settlement of through traffic transactions.—In cases of through traffic, even though the traffic is carried by more than one railway a single voucher for the traffic is issued by the station from which the traffic originates. After the internal check of such vouchers etc. is completed in the Accounts Office, the earnings are apportioned between the railways, and the Accounts of apportionment are rendered, or the result of apportionment is advised, by the apportioning railway to the other railways involved in the transaction. The settlement of through traffic transactions as between the railways takes place monthly on the basis of net results of such apportionment. 

2006. Cases of loss of revenue, or extra expenditure, to be reported to the executive.—In cases where it is noticed in the course of internal check that owing to any reason the railway is losing revenue or is being put to extra expenditure, it is the duty of the authority exercising the check to bring the matter to the notice of the Executive. The work, so far as the traffic earnings are concerned, should be performed by the Traffic Accounts Office.

2007. Period for completion of traffic accounts. —The period for the completion of accounts and for the settlement, among railways, of 'through' traffic transactions, is the complete calendar month. To enable the checking work to be distributed evenly throughout the month, certain station returns are required to be submitted by stations at stated intervals during the month. 

The work of the check of the station returns has to be kept up-to-date, any failure to-do so-results in Error Sheets (A. 2802) against stations issuing late, claims against other railways and Government Departments becoming time-barred and statistical compilations getting delayed. 

2008. Travelling Inspectors of station accounts. —The check exercised by the Accounts Office is largely limited to an examination and comparison of the vouchers, accounts and returns sent by stations. To render it more complete and to verify that the accounts and returns submitted by the stations to the Accounts Office represent the actual state of affairs at the stations, a complement of staff designated as Travelling Inspectors of Station Accounts is attached to the Accounts Office under the charge of an Accounts Officer. The Travelling Inspector of Station Accounts will inspect the initial records maintained at the stations in accordance with the instructions contained in Chapter XXXIII and Chapter XVII except that the scope of their inspection will be mainly confined to the earnings of the railway. 

2009. Some checks in respect of certain station returns, apportionment of earnings between the Railways, as also compilation of certain statistical returns have been computerised. The scheme of Computerisation indicating the processing done on the machines and the details of the checks exercised in the Accounts Office have been incorporated at the appropriate places in this Volume.