Railway Accounts Department Examinations: September 2025

Sunday, September 7, 2025

(Additions to pay, granted to meet specific expenditure requirements of Railway servants)

S.N	Allowance Name	Description of Allowance	Rule (IREC)
1	Compensatory Allowance	Granted to meet personal expenditure necessitated by special circumstances while on duty.	103(10)
2	Dearness Allowance (DA)	Paid to neutralize the impact of rise in cost of living due to inflation.	103(17)
3	House Rent Allowance (HRA)	Granted when suitable government accommodation is not provided.	103(18)
4	Travelling Allowance (TA)	Covers travelling expenses for official journeys.	103(20)
5	Daily Allowance (Tour DA)	Covers daily expenses incurred while on tour/journey.	103(21)
6	Conveyance Allowance	Granted for maintaining conveyance used for official duties.	103(22)
7	Children Education Allowance	Given to meet education expenses of employees’ children.	Govt. Orders
8	All India Leave Travel Concession (AILTC)	Concession/assistance for travel of self & family during leave.	Govt. Orders
9	Compensatory (City) Allowance - Not in operation	For higher cost of living in big/metro cities (Compensatory Allowances).	103(10)
10	Over Time Allowance (OTA)	Paid to staff for work beyond prescribed working hours.	Govt. Orders

IREC stands for Indian Railways Establishment Code

Feedback of Shri Ravi Kumar, ADFM/GTL/SCR

Aspect	Internal Audit	External Audit
Independence	Within organisation	Independent of Railways
Authority	Accounts Dept (PFA)	C&AG of India
Purpose	Compliance, control, efficiency	Legality, propriety, true & fair accounts
Scope	Concurrent, risk evaluation	Annual, statutory audit
Frequency	Continuous	Annual / periodical
Reporting To	Railway management	Parliament (through PAC)
Cost	Railway administrative expenditure Major Head 3002 - erstwhile Demand Number 03	Charged to Railway revenues Major Head 3001 - erstwhile Demand Number 02)

Internal Audit

And

Differences between Internal Check & Internal Audit

Internal Audit:

Objectives:

A Service to Management
Provides assurance of an effective system of Internal Control that is not excessive.
Ensure reliability and integrity of accounting and financial system & Operating Performance.
Ensure compliance with policies, plans, procedures, laws & regulations.
Ensure adequacy of arrangements for safeguarding the Assets.
Facilitate prevention & detection of frauds.
Highlight the deficiencies (in the system, control, practices etc),
Efficiency & scope for economy in the utilisation of resources.

Internal Audit Cell

Functioning at Hqrs as well as Divisions.
Normally consists of one SSO, One TIA and one ISA under the control of Dy.CAO/G or Sr.DFM
Theme Based Audit is one of the Important function of the Internal Audit Cell

Differences between Internal Check & Internal Audit

SN	Internal Check	Internal Audit
1	Check of Day to Day transactions. Work of One person is proved independendently or complementary to the work of another	Selected few topics - Checking in all aspects to ensure effectiveness of System, Compliance of policies & Prevention of frauds.
2	Checking by the Same section staff	Review activity carried out by Persons totally independent of Internal check personnel
3	Frequency Daily/Regular Basis	Frequency - Periodic Basis
4	Built in device	Not built in device
5	Object: Early detection of fraud or prevention of frauds at the time of passing Bills	Suggests System improvement & ensure compliance, service to the Management, Compliance of policies
6	Checking every aspect	Checking few selected topics thoroughly(in all aspects) in order to achieve the object of System improvement/Service to Management
7	Object: Narrow	Object: Broad
8	Basis: Transaction/Bill/Event	Basis: System as a whole