IRCTC's revenue 'reduced drastically' in 2020-21 due to COVID-related restrictions: Govt
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the lifting of restrictions and starting of cooked food in trains during FY 2021-22 helped with the rise in revenue.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation's () revenue "reduced drastically" by almost 64% during 2020-21 compared to 2019-20 due to COVID-related travel restrictions, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Railways, said on Wednesday.
He added that the revenue increased gradually after the situation normalised.
Replying to a query in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw said in 2019-2020, the IRCTC earned Rs 2,342.41 crore, which went down to Rs 861.64 crore during the COVID-affected 2020-21 when it earned Rs 1,952.30 crore.
"Revenue during FY 2020-21 has reduced drastically compared to FY 2019-20 due to travel restrictions imposed during COVID-19 by the Government of India. However, after the lifting of restrictions and starting of cooked food in trains during FY 2021-22, the revenue again gradually increased," he said.
He added that the estimated number of rail passengers who have used IRCTC for booking train tickets during 2019-2020 was 5,229 lakh, followed by 3,052 lakh in 2020-21 and 7,343 lakh in 2021-22.
In the current fiscal, till October 31, 4,607 lakh passengers have booked tickets through IRCTC, he said.
The minister said besides IRCTC, there are various key players across the online ticketing sector such as MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip.
"However, the business of these companies cannot be compared with IRCTC due to the presence of the IRCTC in other segments such as catering, travel, and tourism, as well as Railneer, in addition to internet ticketing.
The company's market capitalisation has, however, increased to Rs 61,976 crore as on March 31, 2022, from Rs 11,644 crore since its listing (October 14, 2019)," he said.
Edited by Suman Singh