NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday granted Navratna PSU status to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation and Indian Railway Finance Corporation, resulting in seven listed govt-owned companies under the state transporter’s charge getting the tag, which gives them greater operational flexibility.
Of the 12 railway CPSEs, Concor, RVNL, IRCON, RITES and RailTel were classified earlier. “After 2014, all the seven (listed) railway CPSEs got upgraded to Navratna status,” railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. In July 2014 Concor was the first to be on the list.
Navratna entities are allowed to make discretionary investments up to Rs 1,000 crore or 15% of their net worth. The IRCTC is an extended arm of railways for providing online railway ticket booking services, and catering services to the national transporter. It has an annual turnover of Rs 4,270 crore, profit after tax of Rs 1,111 crore and a net worth of Rs 3,230 crore for FY24 “All railway CPSEs are profit-making entities. Their accumulative profit has increased from Rs 7,015 crore in FY21 to Rs 11,780 crore in FY24,” the ministry said.
