Chapter XXXIV
Check of traffic relating to Railway Materials and Stores

             3401. This chapter deals with the check and accounting etc. of the following in respect of "Local/Through traffic relating to railway materials and stores for carriage by goods trains on the authority of Railway Material Consignment Notes.

(1)	Railway Material Consignment Notes (COM/R. 1 Revised);
(2)	Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded Local (COM/R. 4 Revised);
(3)	Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded (Through) (COM/R. 5 Revised);
(4)	Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded (Local/Through) (COM/R.6 Revised);
(5)	Invoices ;
(6)	Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores received Local (COM/R. 2 Revised);
(7)	Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores received Through (COM/R. 3 Revised);
(8)	Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores received (Local/Through) (COM/R. 6 Revised); and
(9)	Carriage bills for Railway Materials and Stores.

             3402. Receipt of Accounts foils of Railway Material Consignment Notes. —The accounts foils of the Railway Material Consignment Notes along with the connected Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded (Local/Through) will be received in the Traffic Accounts Office from the forwarding stations monthly duly sorted in the order of their entries in the abstracts.

             3403. Check of Railway Material Consignment Notes. —A list of officials authorized to issue Railway Material Consignment Notes will be supplied by each Railway Administration to its station staff and to the Traffic Accounts Office.  The Accounts foils of Railway Material Consignment Notes received from the stations should be carefully examined as to the official designa­tion of the consignor and the consignee and the nature of materials carried to ensure, as far as possible, that the consignments have been correctly treated as railway materials and that both the consignee and consignor are railway officials.  It should further be seen that :-—-

(i)	all the particulars including the head of allocation have been clearly and legibly entered
(ii)	it is signed by the official authorized to issue the same, and
(iii)	it bears the stamp of the office of issue.

             3404. Should it be found on examination that a Railway Material Consignment Note has been issued for purposes other than those for which it is intended, the items may be noted in a separate register. The station should be asked to regularize the transaction by the issue of an invoice and to obtain credit note from the department concerned, freight being computed at Public Tariff Rates.  All cases of wrong use of Railway Material Consignment Notes should be reported to the Divisional Officer and to the controlling officer of the official issuing the Railway Material Coasignment Notes.

             3405. Check of Abstracts of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded (Local/Through). —The abstracts of Railway Materials and stores forwarded (local/through) should be examined to see that each entry is supported by a Railway Material Consignment Note and that all the transactions included in the Railway Material Consignment Notes received in the Accounts Office have also been included in the outward abstracts.  If any transaction included in the Railway Material Consignment Notes is found to have been omitted to be included in the forwarded abstracts, the same should be posted in the 'forward abstracts' from the particulars available in the Railway Material Consignment Notes. 

             3406. Check of Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded (Local/Through)-- These should be checked with reference to the connected abstracts to see that all the abstracts have been included therein.

             3407. Check of Invoices (Local/Through).— The invoices relating to Railway materials and stores which are received from the destination stations monthly along with the Abstracts of Railway materials and stores, (received) (Local/Through) should be checked according to the rules and rates approved by the Railway Board from time to time and the invoiced freight should be corrected where necessary, no debit, however, being raised against the stations for undercharges.

            Note. —The Railway Administration may, in the case of local traffic provide for the freight charges as accounted for in the outward abstracts being checked with reference to the supporting Railway Material Consign­ment Notes and the carriage bills prepared on the basis thereof instead of checking the freight charges on the inward invoices; and preparing the carriage bills on the basis thereof, should this be considered more feasible. When this procedure is followed, the procedure laid down in paras 3408 and 3409 may be suitably modified and the submission of local inward invoices by the destination stations may be discontinued.

             3408. Check of Abstracts of Railway Materials and stores received (Local/Through). —These should be compared with the checked invoices and corrections made, where necessary.  It should be seen that all the invoices received in the Accounts Office have been included in the inward abstracts and there is no item in the inward abstracts for which connected invoice has not been received. The totals of the abstracts should then be checked.

             3409. Check of Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores received (Local/Throngh). —These should be checked with the checked inward abstracts and thereafter the total thereof completely checked.

             3410. Apportionment of Freight charges .—In the case of through Railway Materials and stores traffic, apportionment of freight charges among the railways involved in the traffic will be made on the basis of checked inward abstracts.  The total freight in respect of traffic grouped between each pair of stations by each route should be apportioned between the railways in kilometrage proportion. After each railway's share of freight has been worked out, Railway Materials Division sheets should be prepared and exchanged between the Railways concerned.

             3411.  Comparison of the forwarded and received Railway Materials and Stores Abstracts and Summaries (Local/Through).--The Abstracts and Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores forwarded should be compared in the case of local Traffic, with the Abstracts and Summaries of Railway Materials and Stores received to ensure that all the transactions booked have been completely accounted for in the inward abstracts and summaries, allowance being made, where necessary for the receipt of invoices etc. at the receiving stations in a month" other than the month of despatch. Action regarding the non accountal of traffic in either class of abstracts should be pursued with the stations concerned, no debit, however, being raised against the stations in such cases.   In the case of through traffic, the abstracts of Railway Materials forwarded should be compared with the Railway Materials Division sheets/Inward Abstracts received from the receiving railway to ensure that the transactions have been completely accounted for in either documents. A list of items less accounted for in the Division sheets/Inward Abstracts should be furnished to the railway rendering the Division Sheets/Inward Abstracts for arranging accountal of the items in subsequent accounts.   In the case of items less accounted for in the forwarded abstracts, the matter should be taken up with the defaulting stations.

             3412.  Preparation of Carriage Bills. —After the freight charges have been checked in the man­ner indicated in Paragraph 3407, carriage bills in Form A. 3412 showing particulars of Invoices, Railway Material Consignemnt Notes, stations from and to, weight and amount of railway freight etc. should be prepared separately for Capital and Revenue Accounts and for each department of the railway for which materials have been carried.   These bills may be prepared in triplicate or quadruplicate, as may be required, and reconciled with the amounts shown in the checked inward summaries of Railway Materials and Stores.

Note. —Sec note under Para 3407

Form A. 3412

…………………….Railway

Carriage Bill for Railway Materials and Stores for the month of…………  

Capital A/cs .
Revenue A/cs.

Bill No.            ……………………Railway

(…………………….…………..Department)        Dr.

             3413.  Issue of Carriage Bills. —The carriage bills for railway materials and stores prepared by the Traffic Accounts Branch should be entered in a manuscript register to be maintained for the purpose showing particulars, such as number and date of the bill, party against whom issued and amount, and made over in duplicate or triplicate, as may be required, to the General Accounts Branch under a covering note or letter to be signed by a Gazetted Officer-in-charge on the specified date. The signature of the responsible official in the General Accounts Branch should be obtained in the register as acknowledgement. However, in the case of railway on which the Traffic Accounts Office and the General Accounts branch are situated at a distance from each other, the carriage bills along with the covering letter should be despatched by dak, acknowledgement for the bills being watched and, on receipt, noted in the said manuscript register.

            Note. —If on a railway the Traffic Accounts Office functions as a separate accounting Unit, the procedure laid down in this para may be suitably modified.

             3414.  Adjustment of Carriage Bills. —The amount of carriage bills on account of freight charges for the carriage of Railway materials and stores should be reflected in the account of the spending departments but instead of being credited to 'Earnings' should be booked as receipts in the Abstract 'K'.

             3415.  On receipt of the carriage bills from the Traffic Accounts Branch, the General Accounts branch should prepare a journal slip crediting the amount of freight charges to the Revenue Abstract-K under the detailed Heads K 691-693-Freight on Railway coal/diesel and stores.............receipts, debiting the various Branches or Divisions concerned through the head 'Transfer Divisional'.  Thereafter necessary Transfer Certificates should be prepared and sent to the Accounts Officer of the spending department concerned duly supported by carriage bills for acceptance.

            Note. —If on a railway, the Traffic Accounts Office functions as a separate accounting Unit, the procedure laid down in this para may be suitably modified. 

             3416. The Accounts Officers of the spending Departments should accept the Transfer Certificates and minus debit the ‘Transfer' head by debiting the amount provisionally to the relevant final head, pending acceptance of the bills by the departments concerned where either the detailed allocation is available on the Railway Material Consignment Notes/Invoices or can be made out from the particulars available. Acceptance by departments should be watched through a register. If on receipt of acceptance, the allocation given turns out to be different from that originally given, the transfer should be made from the incorrect to the correct head.  These acceptance registers should be reviewed quarterly and it should be certified at the end of the year by the officer maintaining the acceptance registers that all changes in allocation intimated by the accepting authorities have been carried out.   In the few cases where it is not possible to allocate the charges even provisionally to a final head, the amount should continue to remain outstanding, during the course of the year under the transfer head i.e.. Transfer Divisional' till allocation is known and adjustment can be made to the final head.   Only amounts remaining unadjusted at the close of the year in the 'Transfer'  Head should be transferred to 'Miscsllaneous Advances'.

            Note. —If on a railway, the Traffic Accounts Office functions as a separate accounting Unit, the procedure laid down in this para may be suitably modified.

             3417. In the case of through traffic, the amount creditable to the other railways as per the Division sheets should be intimated by the Traffic Accounts Branch of the receiving railway to its General Accounts Branch who should minus credit the Abstract K to the extent credit is due to the other Railway (s) crediting 'Transfer Railways’ and send an advice of Transfer credit to the other Railway (s). This head 'Transfer Railways’ should be cleared on receipt of Advice of Transfer debit from the other Railway (s). The latter should credit the amount to the Abstract­ - K 691-693.

            Note. —If on a railway, the Traffic Accounts Office functions as a separate accounting Unit, the procedure laid down in this para may be suitably modified.

             3418. Railway Materials and Stores booked by Passenger Parcel Trains.—These are treated as ordinary public traffic and accounted for as such, the freight and other charges being collected from the departments through Credit Notes at the time of booking or delivery, as the case may be.

             3419. Railway Materials and Stores intended for Deposit Works booked by Passenger/Parcel/ Goods trains.—These should be treated as ordinary public traffic and accounted for as such, the freight and other charges being collected from the Departments through Credit Notes at the time of booking or delivery, as. the case maybe. 

             3420. Wharfage and Demurrage charges on Railway Materials and Stores.—These charges are recovered as per rules prescribed in the case of public traffic and are paid for by the departments concerned by Credit Notes.  These are treated as earnings and accounted for by the stations through the Wharfage and Demurrage returns and Balance Sheets but shown separately from those accrued on public traffic.