SBF - Staff Benefit Fund

SBF - Staff Benefit Fund

·         Chapter VIII of I.Rly.Establishment Code

·         established on Indian Railways in the year 1931.

·         established for the welfare of the Railway employees and their children.

·         A Railway Staff. Benefit Fund shall be maintained for each Zonal Railway. 

·         SBF debited with  activities are 1)Education 2) Recreation 3)Sickness 4)Sports 5)Scouts 6)Indigenous systems of medicine (Homeopathy)

·         SBF credited with

1.    Annual grant on the 01st April of each financial year from the Railway Revenues on "PER CAPITA" basis based on the total sanctioned strength (permanent & temporary).  Work charged posts will not be considered.  At present Per Capita contribution is Rs.800/-

2.    All receipts from fines

3.    Forfeited PF bonuses of Non Gazetted staff

4.    50% of expenditure incurred by Railways on the grant scholarships for technical education of children of Rly staff during the previous year.

5.    Unpaid wages over three years period.

·         Zonal SBF committee composition is as follows

SN	Position
1	Chairman	CPO
2	Member	CMO
3	Member	CE
4	Member	Six members equally to be selected from the two recognized Unions
5	Member
	Member
7	Member
8	Member
9	Member
10	Member	Representative from All India Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Railway Employees Association (AISC&STREA)
11	Member	Representative from All India OBC Railway Employees Association (AIOBCREA)
12	Secretary	Welfare Inspector nominated by GM

 Divisional SBF/Workshop SBF committee composition is as follows

SN	Position
1	Chairman	DPO/WPO
2	Member	One officer nominated by DRM/CWM
3	Member	Four members equally to be selected from the two recognized Unions
4	Member
5	Member
6	Member
7	Member	Representative from All India Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Railway Employees Association (AISC&STREA)
8	Member	Representative from All India OBC Railway Employees Association (AIOBCREA)
9	Secretary	Welfare Inspector nominated by DRM/CWM

·         The cost of stationery, printing charges of forms, postage charges and other contingent expenses relating to the Fund is met from the Railway Revenues.

·         The accounts of the SBF will be monitored and internally checked by the office of the FA&CAO and the Audit will make the checks.

·         Annual Reports on the working of the SBF should be submitted by each Railway Administration to the Railway Board.

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RSP - Rolling Stock Program

RSP - ROLLING STOCK PROGRAM

                                                                              ( Important question for Workshop Accounts & GRP)

Ø   RSP - Plan Head 21 under Demand No.16

Ø  RSP Inclusions: 1) acquiring new rolling stock such as locos, coaches, wagons, cranes tower wagons, track machines, Break Down Cranes etc., 2) Midlife rehabilitation/modernization of rolling stock. 3) Major modifications to be carried out on the Rolling stock which primarily changes their class i.e., conversion of coaches into ART - Accident Relief Train 4) Modifications which are of improvement nature, chargeable to Development Fund

Ø   RSP Exclusions:  1) piecemeal modernization/conversion of the rolling stock normally chargeable to Revenue. 2) Conversions that do not affect the category of the rolling stock or class.

Ø  Follow up of the Five year Plans.

Ø  As part of Five year plans, the working  groups on 1) Freight traffic projections 2) Passenger traffic projections & 3) Formulation of Railway Development projections fix the traffic targets and draft plan is prepared for requirement  of Rolling Stock in respect of Locos, Wagons & Carriages.

Ø  The final plan is subject to periodical reviews based on the growth of expected traffic.

Ø  Usually the Railway Minister is the convener of the above Working groups.

Ø   The Five Year Plan is implemented through an action oriented annual plan prepared in consultation with Finance ministry.

 Advance Planning for Rolling stock:  

Ø   3 years target for Production Units for Locos & Carriages and Wagon Manufacturing units  - finalized by December of preceding year.   That means Production target for 2018-19, 2019-20 & 2020-21 (3 years) is to be finalized by December, 2017 itself.

Ø  If there is no advice by Railway Board in regard Production target, PUs & Workshops can plan 80 % (of previous year production) of their production for the next year.

Ø   Any unanticipated changes or corrections based on the Budget shall be advised in the beginning  of the year.  But the variations should not be too large and not more than + or - 30 % of the original planning.

 Estimation of requirements

Available on line during the previous year	A
Additional requirements due to increase in Traffic	B
Reductions due to change in traffic pattern	C
Total traffic requirement of each type of stock	D = A+B-C
Condemned or likely to be phased out in the previous year	E
Accident damaged beyond rehabilitation	F
Likely population on line at the beginning of the year	A-E-F
Provisions required in RSP	B-C+E+F

Example (assumed):         

Available on line during the previous year	A	200
Additional requirements due to increase in Traffic	B	20
Reductions due to change in traffic pattern	C	5
Total traffic requirement of each type of stock	D = A+B-C	215
Condemned or likely to be phased out in the previous year	E	5
Accident damaged beyond rehabilitation	F	5
Likely population on line at the beginning of the year	A-E-F	190
Provisions required in RSP	B-C+E+F	25

Ø  Apart from the budgeting year, requirements shall also be worked out (with a 30% error margin) for next two consecutive years for each type of Locomotive, Coach and Wagon and included in the Rolling Stock Program.

Itemized Rolling Stock Program (IRSP)

Ø  Prepared by the zonal Railways and PUs

Ø  IRSP is in two Formats: 1) For Works already sanctioned by the Board (Programmed Deliveries) with any changes in numbers or unit rates and 2) For New Works (New Acquisitions) proposed on the premise that the proposals are not global in nature and pertain to the specific local requirement of the particular zone.

Ø   IRSP is submitted on a similar pattern as the Works Programme, separately for Programmed Deliveries and new Acquisitions.

Ø  IRSP should reach the Railway Board by 15 September of the preceding year.

Ø  The IRSP proposals in the above format are consolidated and examined by various directorates, moderated or modified.

Ø   These are then sent for finance concurrence and approval of the C.A. The approved proposals are returned to PU Directorate for compilation and data entry for the Pink Book.

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RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING

RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING

              A system of control by delegating and locating responsibility for costs as well as revenues i.e., fixation of responsibility on Individuals( Sr.DEE, Sr.DCM etc), Departments (Mech dept. ,Comml. Dept etc).

Ø World Bank Team in 1970 year emphasized the need to fully develop a system of Responsibility Accounting on Railways.

Ø The Railway Convention Committee 1971 commented on the Accounting and Budgetary exercise as a routine and dogmatic exercise undertaken and produced by the bureaucratic elite.

Ø Consequently, the revised accounting Classification  came into force w.e.f 01-04-1979 which provides synchronization of Accounting and Budgetary exercises.

Salient  features:

Ø Emphasis division of an Organisation like Indian Railways among different Sub-Units like Sr.DEE or Accounts dept etc in such a way that each Sub-Unit is the responsibility of a Manager.

Ø Cause and effect relationship between the Manager’s decisions and actions.

Ø Manager should be held responsible for those activities directly falling under his/her control.

Pre-requisites:

Ø The area of responsibility and authority of each centre should be well defined.

Ø Each responsibility Centre should have clear set of Goal for the Manager.

Ø The Manager should participate in establishing such Goals that are going to be achieved.

Ø Only the Revenues, Expenses, Profits and investments that are controllable by the Manager should be included in the pefromance report of the Centre.

Ø Performance Report for each Responsibility centre should be prepared highlighting variances, the items requiring attention of the Manager.

Ø In the Performance Report of Responsibility centre, the Expenses, Revenues and Investments controlled by the Manager should only find place.

  Responsibility Centres - 4 segments

I)             Cost Centre:

Ø Examples:  Electrical Dept/Accounts Dept/Sr.DEE/Sr.DME/Sr.DFM etc.  Efforts are now on hand to identify small units such as IOW/Signal Inspector/PWI etc. as suggested by the Committee for identification of Cost Centres and profit Centres by Sri Hassan Iqbal.

Ø is a smaller segment of area of responsibility for which costs can be accumulated.  But Controllabile costs only be selected for this purpose.

II )   Revenue Centre;

Ø Examples;  Commercial Dept or Sr.DCM of a Division.

Ø Responsible for generating revenue.

      III)  Investment Centre:

Ø Examples: Projects like Doubling, New Line etc or CAO/CN, Sr.DEN etc.

Ø A segment of activity for area held responsible for both Profit and Investments.

Ø The Objective of Investment Centre is to maximize the Rate of Return on Investment.  The present Rate of Return is 10%.

     IV) Profit Centre:

Ø Examples:  Zonal Railways such as South Central Railway, Western Rly.etc.  

Ø An area of responsibility whereon the expenses and revenue pertaining to a particular Profit centre i.e., zonal Railway are accumulated;  So far zonal Railways are considering as a Profit Centre.(Profit and Loss Account and Balance sheet are prepared)

Ø Efforts are on the way to propose Divisions such as Secunderabad Division, vijayawada Division etc as Profit Centres as recommended by the Committee of Sri Hasan Iqbal.

Ø A Pilot project is being implementing the Sri Hasan Iqbal committee’s recommendation of Division as profit Centre in Vadodara Division in Western Railway with the help of Railway Staff College, Vadodara.

Ø To make Division as Profit Centre, it is necessary to introduce the Divisionalisation of Apportionment of Earnings with due weightage or originating earnings /terminating//transshipping Divisions as an inducement for adopting aggressive marketing strategies.

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OPTIONAL SUBJECTS - APPENDIX-3 (IREM) Examination

OPTIONAL SUBJECTS - APPENDIX-3 (IREM) Examination

                       for SO(A) group  - Eight choices

First Optional	Second Optional
General Expenditure	Books & Budget
General Expenditure	Stores Accounts
General Expenditure	Workshop Accounts
General Expenditure	Establishment & PF Accounts
Books & Budget	Stores Accounts
Books & Budget	Workshop Accounts
Books & Budget	Establishment & PF Accounts
Traffic Accounts	Traffic Statistics & Traffic Book

Note: General Expenditure and Books & Budget is popular choice among candidates.  But final selection is depend on the candidates exposure in the working /interest /advice of seniors etc.

             for TIA group  - No choice

First Optional	Second Optional
Station Accounts	Traffic Accounts

            for ISA group  - No choice

First Optional	Second Optional
Stores Accounts	General Procedures  followed in office of COS

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