Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear shareholders, good morning, and warm welcome to you all to the 21st Annual General Meeting of IRCTC Limited through video conferencing or other audiovisual facility. [Operator Instructions] Please note that as per the requirements, the proceedings of the Annual General Meeting will be recorded and available on the website of the company. I now hand over the proceedings to Ms. Suman Kalra, company secretary of IRCTC Limited.

Good morning to all of you, dear shareholders. I, Suman Kalra, Company Secretary of Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Limited, extend our very warm welcome to all of you for this 21st Annual General Meeting of the company. As you are all aware that due to COVID-19 pandemic, this AGM is being held through video conferencing in compliance with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act General Circular issued by Ministry of Corporate Affairs dated 8th April -- at 8th April and 5th May 2020 and SEBI LODR Regulations 2015. Further, all efforts have been made by the company to enable members to participate and vote on the items being considered in the meeting. Registers are open for inspection as per the requirement of the statute. Now I feel privileged to introduce Board of Directors for your company. We have with us Mr. Mahendra Pratap Mall, Chairman of your company; Smt. Rajni Hasija, Director, Tourism & Marketing; Shri Ajit Kumar, Director, Finance; Shri Vinay Srivastava, Government Nominee Director and Chairman, Stakeholder Relationship Committee. He's attending this meeting from Ministry of Railways, New Delhi; Ms. Sarita Deshpande, Independent Director and Chairperson, Audit Committee. She's attending this meeting from Bhopal. Ms. Vandana Bhatnagar, Indian Catering Railway Board, nominee for and on behalf of President of India, attending meeting from Ministry of Railways, Delhi.

Namaskar.

Mr. Nitin Jain, Statutory Auditor from Delhi; Mr. Amit Agarwal, Secretarial Auditor attending meeting from Delhi; Shri Balika Sharma, Scrutinizer for the AGM attending meeting from Rohini, Delhi. I now request Chairman and Managing Director of your company to address you all.

Very good morning to all of you. Dear shareholders, as per the requisite quorum for the Annual General Meeting is present, I call the meeting in order. I welcome you all to 21st Annual General Meeting. With the permission of shareholders, the notice convening the Annual General Meeting and directors' report already circulated to you are taken as read. I also take the opportunity to brief our esteemed shareholders about the performance of our company. Dear shareholders, it gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to the 21st Annual General Meeting of your company and share again some remarkable journey. IRCTC has traversed in late last fiscal year. On behalf of Board of Directors of IRCTC, I thank you all for joining us today for the Annual General Meeting. Your presence is indeed a true testimony to your involvement and support for the company, which has successfully completed a momentous journey of 21 years serving the society at large and rail passenger in particular. I trust your family and you are keeping well through these testing times. I also pray that in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, you and your dear and near ones continue to remain safe and healthy. Today, almost every country in the world is feeling the devastating impact of COVID and collateral damage has -- it has caused to life, health and economy. In the unprecedented and challenging times, we stood as one nation in the fight against pandemic. IRCTC provided all possible assistance to the central government in serving underprivileged section of the society. Despite huge constraints during lockdown, IRCTT -- IRCTC distributed more than 21 lakh meals to the needy people across the country in close coordination with local administration, NGOs and Railway Protection Force from it, 30-plus kitchen units spread across India. I assure you that your company is fully prepared to gradually commence its business activity by adhering to all safety health protocols issued by government of India. The management has already adopted itself to the new normal and taken necessary steps to ensure a smooth operation as our workforce has already been trained for serving the customers in these difficult times. We are fully confident that the feedback from our valued customers will help us to foray and enter into the new normal hospitality sector in the post-COVID-19 scenario. Over the last 2 decades, IRCTC has grown many folds from a catering and tourism company to a full-fledged travel, tourism and hospitality in India. Offering a host of products and services to customers with entry in unchartered territories, our growth in new business segments such as corporate train operation, e-commerce in form of payment gateways and e-wallet, cruise business, data and website monetization. The confidence and faith of investors in your company was seen by all when IRCTC went public in 2019. It became one of the best-performing IPOs among the CPSEs, with an oversubscription of around 112x and more than 100% return to investors on the very first day of listing in the stock exchange of the country. The company has witnessed multi-dimensional growth and achieved pathbreaking success during the year under review. I consider it an honor to present the outstanding performance of your company once again. The company's financial statement for financial year '19/'20, along with directors, auditors and CAG's report have been circulated to you. With your permission, I take them as read. I am happy to inform that fiscal '19/'20 was a year to be inscribed in bolder letters for IRCTC and has witnessed a host of achievements and milestone in various spheres, various spheres of business of the company. The turnover of your company increased by 21.68%, rising from 1,870 crores in '18/'19 to 2,275.48 crore in '19/'20. Profit before tax of the company increased by 55.75% from 478.56 crore in the previous year to 745.35 crore in the fiscal '20. Your company recommended the highest-ever dividend of 200 crores, including an interim dividend of 160 crores already paid to shareholders in March '20 for financial year '19/'20, in compliance of DIPAM's guideline on capital restructuring. In catering segment, IRCTC managed to onboard catering services in around 417 passenger trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Tejas, Gatiman, Vande Bharat and other Mail/Express trains. With commissioning -- with the commissioning of 16 new food plaza and 40 fast food units during the year, operational catering units across Indian Railway reached to 293. On the e-catering front, your company's performance has scaled new heights with a 21,571 meals being ordered by the passenger in average on a daily basis. The total production of Rail Neer plant grew by 27.91% in '19/'20 as compared to previous year, which has been very remarkable. IRCTC's Rail Neer package drinking water caters to 55% to 60% demand of Indian Railway. Company has 14 operational Rail Neer plants at present in Delhi, Patna, Palur, Ambernath, Amethi, Parassala, Bilaspur, Sanand, Hapur, Mandideep, Nagpur, Jagiroad, Jabalpur and Sankrail. Of these, 9 plants are being operated under PPP. Company has also planned for setting up 2 more plants at Bhubaneswar and Simhadri near Vishakhapatnam. In travel and tourism, today, IRCTC is one of the leading travel and tourism companies in the country with a host of tourism products and services capturing for diverse tourist segments. IRCTC being essentially a travel and tourism of Indian Railway specializes in rail-based tourism and has always been a market leader in this segment. Today, IRCTC operates Bharat Darshan trains for the budget segment travelers deluxe tourist train for mid-segment tourists and Maharaja Express for the luxury segment. In the fiscal '19/'20, IRCTC took over the operation and management of Golden Chariot luxury train from Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation Limited, which is set to restart the operation of train in January '21. Besides rail tourism, company has diversified into various other tourism businesses for increasing its presence in online travel agency market as a full-fledged OTA to increase its share in fiercely competitive tourism market, that is international and domestic air packages, land tour packages, hotel booking, customized and LTC tours, event management, et cetera, through www.irctctourism.com. IRCTC also offers ForEx, Visa and overseas insurance services. It gives me immense pleasure to inform that IRCTC, for the first time, ventured into the business of private train operation with Ministry of Railways and trusting the project of operating 2 rails of Tejas. IRCTC accordingly started the operation of IRCTC Tejas express on Lucknow-Delhi-Lucknow route and Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. Both the trains have been received very well in the market due to level of services and punctuality. Further, overnight private passenger train, Kashi Mahakal Express on the Varanasi-Indore route, that also commenced operation last year in the field of -- last year. In the field of Internet ticketing, e-ticketing booking through the irctc.co.in accounted for 72.75% of total reserved tickets being booked on Indian Railway. On average, more than 8.25 lakh tickets are -- were booked daily through IRCTC website and mobile app during last year. Your company has levied a convenience fee on e-ticket booking from 1st September 2019 at the rate of INR 15 and INR 30 per ticket for non-AC and AC classes, respectively. Charges are exclusive of GST. New initiative of company noted included captcha-based log-in, railway complaints registration by dialing 139 and Rail Madad. IRCTC also collaborated with National Disaster Response Force for providing e-ticketing services to its personnel. The other major achievements in the field of non-railway ticketing business was the launch of I-Pay, payment gateway for Internet ticketing and development; of a new user interface of IRCTC rail connect mobile app on Android platform. We at IRCTC have the aim of corporate governance by ensuring fairness for every stakeholder that is customer, investor, vendor partner and community. I am pleased to share that your company has received excellent rating on compliance of corporate governance for the year 2019/'20 by Department of Public Enterprise. As stipulated in the guidelines issued by DPE, a separate section on corporate governance has been added in the director's report, and the certificate regarding compliance of conditions of corporate governance has been obtained from practicing company secretary in addition to secretarial auditor. The CSR policy of the company is aligned with the national focus on all-inclusive growth, DPE guideline on CSR and Companies Act 2013. To support the nation in these trying times of COVID-19 pandemic, the company has contributed INR 20 crores to the PM CARES Fund, including INR 28 crores from CSR budget. The company employees also contributed 1 day of their salary to PM CARES as well in the fight against COVID-19. Before I conclude, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you, the esteemed shareholders, for your confidence and valuable support to the Board of Directors and to the company as a whole and also being witness to this AGM. I'm sure that you'll continue to show your confidence and trust towards us as an organization, which will enable us to scale new heights in business. I'm grateful to agencies and institutions from government of India, particularly the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Tourism, DIPAM, Ministry of Finance, SEBI, stock exchanges, BSE, NSE, Department of Public Enterprise, Zonal Railways, statutory auditors, secretarial auditors, Controller and Auditor General of India, all state and government departments and our partners for their continued guidance and support to the organization. I thank all my colleagues on the Board for helping me in creating good governance culture across the organization and fulfilling the responsibilities of the Board. I would like to place on record the sincerity, hard work, commitment and dedication of entire IRCTC team, which has enabled us to grow in multiple direction as a travel and hospitality company. I seek your continued support in making the company more sustainable and resilient to external challenges from time to time. I take this opportunity to thank all the other predecessors of bringing and providing invaluable support. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Now I request company secretary to read auditor's report.

With pool of independent auditors and secretarial auditor, along with respective management replies on part of the annual report, we are pleased to inform that independent auditor's report is not modified one. With the permission of shareholders, I would read extracts of first and last para of independent auditor's report. As for the auditor's report, in their opinion, under the best of their information and according to the explanations, the financial statements read along with audit report gave a true and fair view in conformity with the Indian accounting standards, prescribed under Section 133 of the Act, read with relevant rules. The last part of the report is with respect to the other matters included in the auditor's report in accordance with the relevant rules confirming that the company has disclosed impact of pending litigations on its financial position, has not entered into long-term contracts, including derivative contracts, and no amount is required to be transferred to IEPA. I will now read out the process for voting through electronic voting system instapoll. In pursuance of Regulation 44 of SEBI LODR Regulations 2015 and Section 108 of the Companies Act 2013, the remote e-voting facility was available from 9 a.m. on 24th October 2020 up to 5 p.m. on 26th October 2020. Those who have not cast their vote through remote e-voting process have been provided the facility to cast vote through instapoll, which will be made available on the video conferencing screen and will be activated once the instapoll is announced. As per the notification dated 19th March 2015 of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, shareholders who have cast their vote through remote e-voting process can attend the Annual General Meeting but shall not be allowed to vote again in the meeting. Ms. Balika Sharma of M/s Balika Sharma & Associates, company secretaries, has been appointed as a scrutinizer to scrutinize the remote e-voting process, including voting through electronic voting system. The results of voting, along with scrutinizer's report, will be available at the website of the company, www.irctc.com. Now I request our Chairman for further proceedings.

The polling process is open since the start of the meeting and will close after 15 minutes on the conclusion of this meeting. Those who have not cast their votes may exercise their voting right. Now I request company secretary to read out the agenda item of the meeting.

I will read out the items of the business of the AGM now. Ordinary business. First item is to consider and adopt the audited stand-alone financial statement of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2020, along with the Board's report, the report of auditors and comments of CAG of India thereon. Second item is on dividend. To confirm the payment of interim dividend of INR 10 per share, amounting to INR 160 crores and to declare a final dividend of INR 2.5 per share amounting to INR 40 crores or INR 16 crore equity shares for the financial year 2019/'20. Third item is to appoint a director in place of Smt. Rajni Hasija, Director, Tourism & Marketing, who retires by rotation and being eligible offers, herself qualified for reappointment. Item #4 is to take note of the appointment of M/s P.R. Mehra & Co., statutory auditors, for the financial year 2021 appointed by CAG of India, vide its letter dated 10th August 2020 and authorize the Board of Directors of the company to fix their remuneration. The resolutions are, resolved that pursuant to Section 1395 read with Section 142 of the Companies Act 2013 and the company's Audit and Auditors Rule 2014, including any statutory modifications or reenactment thereof for the time being enforced, the appointment of P.R. Mehra & Co. chartered accountants be is hereby noted. Resolved further, the Board of Directors of the company on the recommendations of Audit Committee be and is hereby authorized to decide and fix the remuneration, including the reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses in connection with the audit work to the statutory auditors appointed by CAG of India for the financial year 2021. Now we come to the special business. Item #5 is to appoint Shri Vinay Srivastava as part-time government director on the Board. The resolution is, resolved that pursuant to provisions of Section 149, 152 and other applicable provisions, if any, of the Companies Act 2013 rules made thereunder, Shri Vinay Srivastava, EDPSU Railway Board who was appointed as part-time government director by the President of India, while Ministry of Railways letter dated 18th March 2020 and subsequently appointed as an additional director by the Board of Directors with effect from 20th March 2020 to hold office up to the date of this AGM in terms of Section 161 of the Companies Act 2013 and in respect of whom the company has received a notice in writing under Section 160 of the Companies Act 2013, be and is hereby appointed as part-time government director on the Board of the company liable to retire by rotation. Item #6 is to appoint Shri Ajit Kumar as Director finance on the Board of the company. Resolved that pursuant to the provision of Section 149, 152, 160 and other applicable provision of the Companies Act, Shri Ajit Kumar, who was appointed as Director Finance by the President of India by Ministry of Railways letter dated 29th May 2020 and subsequently, in terms of Section 161 of the Companies Act 2013, appointed as additional director, Director Finance by the Board of Directors with effect from 29th May 2020, to hold office up to the date of this AGM and respect of whom the company has received a notice in writing under Section 160 of the Companies Act, be and is hereby appointed as Director Finance on the Board of the company liable to retire by rotation. I now request Chairman and other directors to answer the queries of shareholders relating to items of business.

I now invite the shareholders who have preregistered to ask questions and have joined as shareholder speakers, to raise their queries, if any, relating to items of business as mentioned in the notice of Annual General Meeting. I also invite shareholders to post messages on the communication box available on the screen to each member participating in the meeting, which would be replied suitably.

Operator, you may go -- you may now go ahead.

I now invite Mr. [ Yashpal Chopra ] to unmute his audio and video and ask the question or give comments. [Operator Instructions] Sir, your line is on mute sir. Mr. [ Chopra ], your line is on mute. Mr. Chopra, your line is on mute. If you could kindly unmute your line. Mr. Chopra, can you hear us? Sir, your line is on mute, sir. We are unable to hear you. We will proceed to the next shareholder as we check the connection of Mr. Chopra. I now invite Mr. [ Jasmeet Singh ] to unmute his audio and video and ask or give his comments.

Hello, everyone. I'm [ Jasmeet Singh ] from Delhi representing a couple of other investors to read our common note. Respected Chairman, Shri M P Mall; Director Tourism and Finance, Rajni Hasija; Director Finance, Ajit Kumar; Company Secretary, Suman; other Board of Directors, along with my co-shareholders, a very good afternoon to you all. In this half, to begin with, I'm happy to note that all our IRCTC employees and their family members are keeping safe and fine. This being the first Annual General Meeting of our company after it has become public was expected to be conducted in some auditorium. But due to current pandemic, it's taking place through video conferencing mode, which is fine. However, coming year onwards, presuming we will fall back to normalcy, we and other shareholders expect the company to conduct the AGM from a place like India Habitat Center in the heart of Delhi. While the IPO price was INR 320 or whatever, it was happily surprising to see our share price achieving new peaks month-on-month. Now, and in no time, our share price grew sixfold of the IPO price, which was nothing but a reflection of the increased confidence in the minds of the investment community who visualize our company to grow at much faster pace and what we perhaps did during the last many years. But today, our share price is most expensive amongst the PSUs, which, in some way, is discomforting. So instead of worrying, I would like to bank on the faith in my management to deliver positive results continuously quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year. And so I look forward to our leadership team who not only drive the existing verticals organic growth but at the same time new verticals to add into our revenues and existing portfolio for inorganic growth. While Chairman, sir, in addition to the 250-page exhaustive annual report, you have elaborately presented the company working, which more or less has covered all facets of our working. However, I have -- we have a couple of points to raise hereunder. First, given the government initiative to privatize the operations of certain trains, how fruitful of an experience has been running Tejas trains on a couple of routes. More exciting is this new domain. Given the poor image of services provided across the trains in India, we actually need privately managed trains at large in India. But do we have the adequate resources to participate and turn this into a larger pipe equally profit earned through our various verticals such as ticketing or catering or through Rail Neer or, say, hospitality? Please appraise. Second, while we all pray to the God that this COVID kind of situation do not never happen again in future, but at the same time, may I request you to share our preparedness on how to negotiate the current pandemic from our business point of view if it continues for many more months. Further, thank you, Chair, closing the final dividend in addition to the interim dividend already paid by the company. On corporate governance, I would like to thank the finance and secretarial team led by Shri Ajay Srivastava, now Shri Ajit Kumar and Madam Suman Kalra, who are working very hard to maintain high standards of corporate governance. We would like to acknowledge the hard work put in by our secretarial team to see the successful conduct of this virtual meeting being organized by our company and allow us to interact with you. To end, we wish the entire IRCTC team all the very best. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We will now proceed to the next questioner. I now invite Mr. [ Yashpal Chopra ] to unmute his audio and video and ask his question or give us comments.

Honorable Chairman, sir, I am very, very much proud of the team. You're holding it around you, sir. Sir, our company, which has done fantastically very well during the last 21 years, it was established on 21st September 1999. And now after 21 years, the company, which was established with only INR 20 crore as capital, that is now a big ocean having a INR 20,000 crore capital base. So that is a big, big achievement of the company. So I must congratulate the management and the team over there. Sir, I must congratulate you further, the success of IPO, that was a record subscription, and the listing gains were fantastic. And the people have been very, very happy with the performance of the company. And the company's performance has been excellent in the maiden performance, and there has been all-round growth in revenue, PBT, PAT, EPS. And even the dividend declared and paid to the shareholders, that is handsome, and that shows your industrial friendliness for the shareholders. So we are very much proud of you, sir. Sir, the main thing for which I'm proud of the company is that the novel products the company has taken. The product of catering, the product of ticketing, the product of comfortable journey in the rail. And I remember those days in '90s when there was such a big, big racket of going -- was going on between the ticket clerk and those media men, those brokers and all that, and the people who are just in need of 1 ticket, they had to wait for hours and hours and hours. And even, sir, I saw the people just sleeping with their kambals on the station by just getting the bookings on the next day. And within 15, 20 minutes, their booking was over. And when the police went over there, they said go to that shop over there in front of the station, you will get that ticket for any station, any destination, any class, any rail. Everything is available over there. But over here, nothing because that was the corrupt time of Narasimha Rao, and everything was just corrupt at that time. So by establishing this company, you have done a big, big blessing on the share -- on the commuters. Now the commuters are just blessing you for the comfort you have given to them. And sir, even once the people would get their rail ticket, the rail, whenever that would come to the platform, that was just in the shabby condition and people will rush into their seats and they will clean their seats with their uniform or whatever they are wearing. So there was no concern for the cleanliness at that state. So now you have just changed the atmosphere. Now the atmosphere is that of Swachh Bharat and that you are meeting the dreams of our Prime Minister. Sir, even while then that people were just asking for the food and all that, most of the complaints in the complaints book, you can see the world record, that was no the quantity and quality of the food. And the people were just repenting by they had just eaten that food, and most of the people who are taking the food from their houses, from their places are from the hotels around that station and all that. So sir, you have just given us -- this is a very, very big blessing. You are, sir. So I say that the product company has chosen, that is excellent. And I know that people can afford any kind of amount if we can get a good service. And you have just established even the private rail, along with this government rail. So that is a big thing. There are people who do not want to travel by air. They can enjoy those -- that air facility in those smart rails. And smart rails with air hostess, now you're going to provide the air hostess. That means you will be giving the feeling of the air service also. So we are very, very much proud of you, sir. Sir, now the time -- sometimes the query comes that's why I should ask for the performance of the company during 2021. But at the same time, I know that 2021 first half year has been marked badly by the pandemic, pandemic COVID. And as our company deals with only the human mobility and now the human being, they are just within the 4 walls of their houses. They have to move out only out of the dire necessity. So that means when this climate of COVID will go away, and then only then I can expect normal resumption of the performance and only then I can expect it. But I know that from your side, from the company's side, the infrastructure is very much solid and very much clean and very much ready to provide all the facilities. So we are very, very much proud of the company. So in the end, I would just consulate all the management, the dedicated service over there. And I pray God that let our corporate governance because that -- they are doing -- that lady is doing a fantastic job. She is just answering the queries of the people in such a quick way. So we are very much proud of the corporate governance over there, sir. And of course, our company, which is just getting the international name. Because once the international tourists will welcome -- will come over here, you are there to welcome them with the hospitality services. And I know this is going to be a very big feeder in the name of our country that will enhance the image of our country. And that is virtually, our Prime Minister is very much proud of the -- of this company. This company may be called Navratna or Maharatna in the times to come. So I wish you best of luck to all of you and to our dedicated teams from the top to bottom. And I pray to God for the safe health and for the positive energy, positive vision. So best of luck to you. Thank you.

I now invite Mr. [ Lokesh Gupta ] to unmute his audio and video and ask his question or give comments. [Operator Instructions]

[Foreign Language]

I now invite Mr. [ Ashok Kumar Gupta ] to unmute his audio and video and ask the question or give comments. [Operator Instructions]

[Foreign Language]

I now invite Mr. [ Amit Kumar Naredi ] to unmute his audio and video and ask to give his comments. [Operator Instructions]

So good morning, management and my fellow shareholders. My first question is currently, government of India hold 87.4% stake in IRCTC, and you recently appointed merchant bankers for offer for sale for a period of 3 years. So what is your plan about this? And the reason I'm asking this question is recently, 1 of the PSU company came up with the OFS. And after that, the price came down to 50%. So my serious concern is whenever you plan the offer for sale, plan it properly, keeping in mind the interest of small shareholders. My second question is as per the current circumstances, I know it is very uncertain, but I just want to ask by when we will reach to pre-COVID levels. Thank you.

I now invite Mr. [ J. Abhishek ] to unmute audio and video and ask your question or give your comments. [Operator Instructions]

Yes, sir. My name is [ Abhishek ], shareholder of the company. My DP ID, IN301637 and client ID is 41359155. First of all, I congratulate the management on the eve of 21st Annual General Body Meeting and the first Annual General Board meeting after the IPO. Sir, unfortunately, we do not make face-to-face this time, but hope to see you in the physical AGMs next year. Sir, we thank the management for having declared a very good final and interim dividend during the year. You understood the pain of the shareholders they are going through in this pandemic situation, and you have supported the shareholders by giving a very good dividend. So I would like to appreciate the management for that and hope that the company will continue giving such dividends to the shareholders in the coming years also. And Page #40, sir, I can see that our details pertaining to Maharaja Express is being given where we can see only 1,074 tourist availed services in 2019/'20 and 1,142 tourists in 32 trips than they availed in the previous year. So the number -- such a good initiative and a fantastic project by our IRCTC. But we can see the number of tourists in this particular train are really less. So I would request you to kindly give discounts and regular cash-back offers and vouchers to the tourists, so that there are more number of tourists can join in this particular Maharaja Express. And I would request you to kindly arrange a visit in the Maharaja Express for the shareholders, exclusively for the shareholders, on 1 particular day by intimating all the shareholders and interested shareholders can turn up and also at a discounted price for the shareholders, I would request you to please arrange this particular trip. And sir, that overall basis that the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns have left virtually no industry untouched. And I think even our industry is being affected very badly in this past 6, 7 months. So any employees we have sagged, higher salary cut in percentage, if any, during this particular pandemic, I would like to know you from those, sir. And what is the view of the management going forward, sustainability of the profit earnings growth are going to remain challenged in the coming quarters? And sir, I would request you to please take part in the investor relation exercise like on-call quarterly presentations and meeting global investors on a regular basis, so that this will increase the number of investments, and we can see a good appreciation. As I said already, our company has given us a very good return in the share market, but hope that in the coming future also, management is going to give us a same return in the years to come. So nothing much to ask, sir. Hope to see you in the physical AGM next year. I wish the company and the Board of Directors a great success and prosperity in the coming future. Thank you for giving me the opportunity, sir.

I now invite Mr. [ Santosh Kumar Saraf ] to unmute his audio and video and ask your questions or give your comments. [Operator Instructions]

[Foreign Language]

I now invite Mr. [ Rahul Jain ] to kindly unmute his audio and video and ask your questions or give you a comment. [Operator Instructions]

Good afternoon to the entire Board members and fellow shareholders. I wish you all good health. My question is on the report, you have mentioned that catering industry is expected to grow at 7.5 to 8.5 [ GR ] over FY 2024 to INR 14.5 billion to INR 15.5 billion, which is quite conservative when the announcement of price increases for both catering segment onboarded -- onboard as well as stated during the previous fiscal. So can we assume that these hikes in price will not be implemented anytime soon due to COVID factor? And if these are going to be implemented, then when should we expect this happening? Is the first question. Secondly, the significant underutilization of Rail Neer capacity at the moment, we have committed to our plan on building more capacity. So what is the rationale on this aspect? And lastly, given the current business situation, would not it be better for the company to look for divestment plan much later than the financial prospects for the company at far better place rather than looking for it? I know it's not an immediate mandate, but just trying on this would be helpful. That's is from my side.

We now invite Mr. [ Shripal Singh Munot ] to unmute his audio and proceed to ask your question. Mr. Shri Pal, can you hear us?

Hello?

Yes, Mr. Shripal, we can hear you now. Yes, we can hear you, sir.

[Foreign Language]

I now invite Mr. [ Mani Sundaram ] to kindly unmute your audio and proceed to ask your question.

IRCTC website needs to be more user-friendly. And I don't know how many languages it supports, but if it can support more number of languages, it will be very useful. And all the best to the management. For the recent -- cancellation charges also can be reduced a little bit. That is what I see. Thank you very much.

Hello? More senior citizens should be given very good concession, also enjoy children's ticket at half rate during their end of age. They're enjoying 60 years of half rate. Today, children are paying more or they have issued a ticket at half the rate without any seat. If I look into the younger generation may request the seats the management those who enjoyed are [indiscernible] period also, there is no concession for a seat in it [indiscernible]. But the children has their don't take at full rates. Please look into it as a common gesture. Thank you.

So that was the last question from the participants.

So I'll address the issues. I mean, first, I'll address the issues raised by individual speakers. And then maybe in brief, I'll comment on the future plans of IRCTC as somebody was mentioning about diversification and all. So I'll mention that. Coming to Mr. [ Jasmeet Singh ], he wanted to know about the operations of private trains, new trains and for many new trains venture which India is -- which Indian Railway is privatizing. So we started with the private train operation last year. That is on first train between Lucknow and Delhi, was left off on 4th of October 2019. And second train was on 17th of January between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Third was Kashi Mahakal Express, of course, that train only went for a few trips and this COVID thing came up. So as per original projections given by consultant and as per demand analysis and market survey done by us, these trains were to breakeven in later part of year 1 or beginning of year 2. But with superior service and a shorter travel time by ensuring limited refund in case of delayed operation for the first time in India. We could manage our occupancy level and fare level, but Lucknow Tejas was almost breaking even in first 6 months of operation. I mean when the operations closed in March, it was on a verge of breakeven. And surprisingly, Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas, it -- there was breakeven since day 1, which was a unique thing, which we achieved, and we were also surprised. But yes, during the -- in that sector, there is demand for travel, for a superior travel, for a better travel. So there is a scope of -- for such trains. There is demand for such trains in India. And now that Indian Railway are coming out with a big plan for private train operation and we have participated in that, we also want to enter into a big way. So we hope that this segment will be a new -- the new area for IRCTC. And as on date in within country, there is no other operator who has any experience of running any corporate train or private train or train similar to this. Now Mr. [ Chopra ] mentioned about -- of course, he appreciated, and then he was worried about performance of '21. Yes, all of us are worried about performance of 2021 because of this pandemic. And our first quarter results are out, and you must have seen it, for the first time, this was a balance sheet in loss. But I'm happy to share that we may come out of it soon. First quarter was pretty bad because there was no train operation for almost 2 months. So as and when as gradually as when this trade operation is picking up and train movement is picking up, I'm sure we've also come out of it. Then Mr. [ Lokesh Gupta ] mentioned about stay arrangement. So this is just to inform that we have already -- we have signed up with the Hotel Association of India and Hotel & Restaurant Association of India. Those -- they are also -- they approached us. We -- in fact, we had a meeting. And they wanted us to work on the line of other OTAs and have a tie-up with them -- tie up with us for a limited commission, unlike other OTAs who had started feesing them. So we had like 1 agreement with their chapter of North India, and a broader agreement was proposed to be signed on 21st January at Jammu. But then it was postponed because of this pandemic coming up. So we have -- I mean, this just to keep you informed that we already have tied up with this hotel association and hotel and restaurant association. And they are North India chapter. They are signing. And the moment situation improves, all these agreements will be finalized, and this will be a new business stream from IRCTC. Mr. [ Ashok Gupta ] mentioned about fast food chains. Actually, these fast food chains are basically set up at the space allocated by Indian Railway to IRCTC based on demand of station and demand from customers. So as and when it is allotted, we immediately go for it. Mr. [ Amit Naredi ] spoke about the plan for divestment. Frankly speaking, sir, we have little say on this. So it's basically decided by Ministry of Finance when and how much to divest. Now his query was when would we reach pre-COVID levels. Pre-COVID levels, I'm sure, I mean, all of us are suffering from this. Once this travel -- fear for travel goes away, fear for movement goes away, then I'm sure once this mental block is removed, within 1 quarter, we'll be back to pre-COVID levels. Mr. [ Abhishek ] mentioned about capacity of Maharaja -- I mean, bookings in Maharaja. So I mean, just to inform that this is not a normal train where 1,000 passengers travel. This is a train which has capacity of 74 butts only, 74 cabins -- 74 seats in 37 cabins. This altogether a different product, but certainly, we'll consider a visit for shareholder and maybe a discounted rate for shareholders also we'll work out, sir. He also asked about job cut and salary, sir. We are one of the resilient organization with a very flexible working model. Job cut and salary cut are perhaps the easiest option to save on expenditure, but then it has long-term impact on morale and culture of the organization. So we have not thought of it. And we have so far managed well. And in view of future what we are seeing, I don't think there is any need for this to demoralize our staff because, ultimately, it is the employee and the staff of the organization who drive new organization. Yes, some perks and privilege cut was done at director's level and GGM's level, which is not even 1% of the top. Then Mr. [ Saraf ] mentioned about bills that we look into, sir. We'll certainly take care of it. About ticket date change without any cancellation charges on IRCTC tickets, this is an issue to be sorted out by Ministry of Railways. We'll approach them, but there is one basic difference, sir. There's a difference between a ticket taken from window and ticket taken from IRCTC that even a waitlisted ticket taken from a window is considered as authority to travel. And if a person is found with that on that particular train, he is not treated as passenger without ticket. Unlike that a passenger who is found with a waitlisted ticket issued through IRCTC system on that train, he is treated as passenger without it. Anyway, you have addressed, we will certainly approach Ministry of Railways. Mr. [ Rahul Jain ] mentioned about hike in prices of catering and underutilization of Rail Neer capacity. Hiking price of catering was to be effective from November 2019. For postpaid trains, we are -- I mean where food is sold against cash or money, which was implemented. And in case of prepaid trains that is Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, this was to be effective from February as advanced reservation for 4 months was already done. In the meantime, this pandemic, because of this, it would not be implemented, and we are working with ministry on various models to sort this out. Underutilization of Rail Neer capacity, I believe there is some misunderstanding because all our plants are running at more than 88%, 89% capacity. This may have a reason because we commissioned 4 plants in last financial year. And in first year of its commissioning, any plant's capacity is restricted to 30%. Then it gradually goes up. And third year, it becomes 100%. And Mr. [ Mani Sundaram ] mentioned about website being more user-friendly. So unlike other websites, I mean, we have certain constraints, primary constraint being of the huge demand-supply gap, and the demand-supply gap within the first 5 minutes of operations is starting. That is when advanced reservation starts at 8, 8 to 8:05, then tatkal starts 10 to 10:05 and 11 to 11:05. So that is the time when many unauthorized software that is what we gather on -- with many unauthorized, vendors. They approach our website through unauthorized software, and they take bulk of the tickets, depriving individuals of the network. So at times, we deliberately make our site lower, so that these software -- to escape the software. Sometimes, I mean, minimum time taken is almost 40 -- 40 seconds?

40 seconds.

40 seconds is minimum. Before 40 seconds, nobody can take the ticket. So that is why we have to put -- and there are a lot of efficient people who can claim to get ticket within 15, 20 seconds. But we put hurdles, so that nobody is able to take before 40 seconds, otherwise, every ticket will be taken away by the software. So anyway, still, your suggestion is welcome. We'll look into that. About these cancellation charges you mentioned, yes, there's a policy decision to be taken by Ministry of Railways. Then Mr. -- at last, Mr. [ Bharat ] mentioned about various kind of discount senior citizen and all that. There's a policy decision to be taken by Ministry of Railways. Now these are some of the queries, yes, hotel tie-up, we already mentioned, new trains we are entering. So we are trying to diversify more and more. We have a young team, which has been put on the job. And I'm sure that the company will keep on performing good. Thank you, sir.

We have one question for Mr. [ Yusuf Rangwala ]. [Operator Instructions]

[Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

So that was the last question that we had.

Since Q&A session is over, the icon item e-voting is available on the screen, which will redirect you on a separate window to the e-voting portal of NSDL. The e-voting facility will be active from 11:30 a.m. and will be closed 15 minutes after the closure of the meeting. The results of voting will be declared by 12 hours tomorrow and will be intimated to the stock exchanges also. Now I request Smt. Rajni Hasija to give a word of thanks.

Namaskar. A very good afternoon to you all. It gives me immense pleasure to propose the word of thanks to our Chairman and Managing Director, Shri M P Mall; Board members of the company; representative of the honorable President of India, Ms. Vandana Bhatnagar; and the valued shareholders; statutory and secretarial auditors of the company; NSDL and Chorus. I would also like to thank M/s Alankit Assignments Limited, registrar and share transfer agents of your company. Last but not the least, the entire IRCTC team who has really slogged hard to bring this company to at this level. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am. [Voting]

Dear members, as advised by scrutinizers, the time for e-voting has elapsed, and they are of the view that all members who are participating in the Annual General Meeting have been given aggregate time and opportunity to vote at the AGM. And this concludes the proceedings of the AGM. Thank you all for participating in the AGM and e-voting.