Indian Railways Freight Services – Please onboard BBPS

 


The butter of the Indian Railways is the freight traffic.

For the Financial year 2020-21, Freight earnings till February 2020 stood at Rs 119,216.11 crore (US$ 17.06 billion).

Revenue growth has been strong over the years. Indian Railways’ gross revenue stood at Rs 183,092.74 crore (US$ 26.20 billion) in FY20 (till February 2020).

Passenger earnings for Indian Railways was estimated at 51,077.73 crore (US$ 7.31 billion) in FY20 (till February 2020).

Freight remains the major revenue earning segment for Railways, accounting for 65.1 per cent of its total revenue in FY20 (till February 2020), followed by the passenger segment.

This means Indian Railways collects more than 1,20,000 crores through its Freight Operations Information System (FOIS).

Computerisation of the Freight Operations Information System: The FOIS enables management and control of freight movement, optimised asset utilisation and the generation of invoices. Many of IR's larger freight customers pay through an electronic payment gateway interfaced with the FOIS.

E-Payment For electronic payment of   freight   for   any   commodity   like   Coal booked at a terminal like Power House like BTPS from collieries on ECR. Originating point intimates electronically the freight charges   due   to   the   bank   eg   SBI or any other Indian Railways authorised bank.  

After   receipt   of   "Successful   Transaction"   message   -   electronic confirmation from the bank of this transaction confirming the debit from BTPS account, RR is printed at the originating point. It is a synchronous transaction and reply is normally received within 2 minutes

Indian Railways achieves milestone in pulling freight traffic, earns Rs 306.1 crore amid COVID-19 challenges

Indian Railways will publicise direct contact numbers and website details which can be accessed by traders for transporting freight, enhancing their ease.

The Covid19 experience:

On August 19, 2020, the freight loading was 3.11 million tonnes which is higher than last year for the same date (2.97 million tonnes).

On the same date, Railways earned Rs 306.1 crore from freight loading which is Rs 5.28 crore higher than last year for the same date

Till 19th August 2020, the total freight loading is 57.47 million tonnes which is higher than last year for the same period (53.65 mn tonnes)

Notably, Indian Railways is going to promote Railways’ freight service, making traders, businesses, and suppliers aware of the benefits associated with transportation through railways.

This is where BBPS can assist Indian Railways for quick, error-free collection of Freight Charges.

The existing FOIS ePayments Module is suitable for regular users of Indian Railways Freight services. The LC/BG calculation enables regular users to quickly and easily remit the freight charges to Indian Railways.

The existing FOIS ePayments Module also enables Indian Railways to collect the freight charges before the goods are actually transported.

However, this may be a bit cumbersome for new segments which Indian Railways is targeting.  

Indian Railways is embarking on a major awareness drive to promote Railways’ freight service, amongst traders, businesses, and suppliers across India.

As per the plan, Indian Railways plans to publicise direct contact numbers and website details which can be accessed by traders for transporting freight, enhancing their ease.

BBPS can be one-stop Freight Charges Collection Channel for Indian Railways.

01)       Indian Railways various Zones for example Central Railway, East Central Railway, East Coast Railway onboard BBPS as Biller

02)       CRIS develops a separate module in FOIS for non-recurring customers.

03)       Non-recurring customers login to the new module, complete the freight booking formalities and click on the BBPS Payments Screen.

04)       A pre-filled challan is generated with a Unique BBPS Invoice Number

05)        The customer logs into any BBPS App, chooses the respective Railway Biller, retrieves the Invoice and complete the payment.

06)       The actual payment mode, Cash/eWallet/Net Banking/Debit Card/Credit Card/Pay Later/IMPS/UPI is left to the customer.

07)        After the actual payment, the Final eInvoice is generated in the module and shared with the respective users.

08)       This will be a win-win process for all the participants.

 

References:

01) SBI's Presentation to Indian Railways at New Delhi on 10.11.2018 @ http://irastimes.org/Article_pdf/SBI%20Digital-%20Railways%202018-Final.pdf

02) GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (BHARAT SARKAR), MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (RAIL MANTRALAYA)

RAILWAY BOARD, Rates Circular No. 39/2008, No.TC-1/2004/104/1-pt. New Delhi, dated 04.08.2008 @ https://logisticallyyours.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/rc-39-dt-04-08-08-guildelines-for-electronic-payment-system.pdf

03) Railway Board Master Circular on ePayments. Cir No TC-I/2019/104/2 DT.27/08/2019 @

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/uploads/directorate/traffic_comm/Rates_Master_Circulars/2019/RMC_Epayment_270819.pdf

04) Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) @ https://indianrailwayemployee.com/content/freight-operations-information-system-fois

 

E-Payment - E-payment means payment of freight by debiting customer’s account and crediting Railways account with bank online.

This facility is provided to corporate customer.

This facility is developed by CRIS which acts as a co-coordinator between Indian Railway and Bank.

This facility can be provided at TMS (FOIS) locations only.

Salient Features: -

1) Customer must have an account exclusively for this purpose at any internet banking enabled branch.

2) Quadripartite agreement is to be signed among bank customer and Railway. After signing agreement Railways will give a unique customer code.

3) Customer will open an irrevocable inland letter of credit (LC) bank credit with the bank in favour of Railway for a minimum amount equal to 2 days average freight during busy season in last financial year.

4) At loading point/terminal the goods clerk will key in customer code and other particulars through TMS.

5) Above data is captured by CRIS and passed on to bank.

6) Bank will process the data, and debit the freight from- customer’s account and credit the same to Railway Account.

7) On getting success message FOIS will generate paid ERR. In case of unsuccessful transaction, FOIS will generate paid ERR up to the LC limit, thereafter TO-pay RR will be generated.

8) This facility is introduced to provide better service to rail customers and to reduce cash transactions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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