Finance ministry asked to release Rs 6.10bln to Railways

National Assembly’s standing committee on Railways has taken the notice for not issuing Rs 6.10 billion to Railways and sought written reply from Finance Ministry.The meeting of the committee was held at Parliament House on Wednesday, Chairman of the committee MNA Sardar Ayaz Sadiq presided over the meeting.The committee showed its resentment over not taking action by Railways Police against the Railways official involved in the theft of diesel and handed over the matter to NAB.Secretary Railways Arif Azim told the committee that that the total loss of the department has exceeded form Rs 40 billion, whereas 80 percent of the revenue is being spend on procurement of oil. “Business Train has to repay more than Rs 25 billion to Railways as it had to pay Rs 3.1 million per month but it paid only Rs 1.1 million on monthly basis.He told the committee that Railways has started the cargo operation and initially seven freight trains have been plied He said that Finance Minster has not yet released Rs 6.10 billion to Railways due to which it is facing financial hardships.The NAB officials revealed before the committee that high ups of Railways are involved in the corruption. He said that Finance Ministry has released the funds for repair of 150 locomotives, which would be completed within six months period.They said that NAB has completed the inquiry of the cases regarding purchase of Railways engines from China, Royal Palm Club and disposal of scrap .NAB has given Rs 80 million to Railways after recovering from defaulters in sale of scrape case.“Railways can get an additional income of Rs 550 million from the sale of scrape moreover the cost of Royal Palm Club has been evaluated Rs 16 billion”, NAB officials added.