Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 FY 2023 Earnings Conference Call of IRCTC hosted by Dolat Capital. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. If you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Kindly note the duration of the call is for 45 minutes, and this conference call is being recorded. I'll now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Thank you and over to you.
Thank you, Yashaswini. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Dolat Capital, we welcome you all to the Q3 FY 2023 Conference Call of IRCTC Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of IRCTC, represented by Srimati Rajni Hasija, who is Chairman and Managing Director of the company. Now I would like to hand the conference over to the management to take the proceedings forward. Over to you, please.
Very good afternoon to everyone. At the outset, let me welcome you all to this conference call of IRCTC Limited for the quarter and the nine months which evented in 31st December 2022. Let me wish you all a very good day and hope that you and your dear ones are in good health. Yesterday, company had announced unaudited financial results for the Q3 of the financial year 2023, and the same has been disclosed on both the stock exchanges. I shall first give a brief overview over quarter Q3 of this year, financial and business segments and performance goals, which we shall have a question and answer session.
Coming to the performance of this financial year and the Q3, the revenue for the quarter hit a new high and came at INR 918 crore, implying a growth of almost 70% on year-over-year basis and 14% on quarter-over-quarter basis. We shall provide more color on the same in a few months when we discuss the segmental performance. Importantly, the revenue for the Q3 of this financial year continues to be higher than the pre-COVID levels, certainly. All the business segments except tourism saw revenue higher than the pre-COVID levels. However, in the tourism also we have done a good job. While the absolute EBITDA grew at 7% quarter-over-quarter and EBITDA margin came at 35.5% versus 37.8% in the Q2 of 2023.
This is mostly due to the increase in the share of our catering business in the revenue from the operations, which I shall be elaborating in the catering section. As I have shared earlier, with the headwinds of the pandemic behind and hopefully the travel and hospitality industry is now looking forward for a much better financial year 2023 and beyond. IRCTC's business segments can also look up to further improve performance in the changed industry environment. Let me now move to the business segment of the company. First is the internet ticketing segment, which continued to demonstrate its resilience and revenue for the quarter was nearly 300 crores and largely unchanged for quarter-over-quarter. Despite the decline in through as reserved ticket booking, the year-over-year decline was just 3.8% on year-over-year basis.
The segment has shown its resilience yet again as regards the profitability is concerned with Q3 results and EBIT margins now coming at 84.2% versus unchanged over quarter-over-quarter basis and 84.8% on year-over-year basis. If we discuss about the catering segment, after slight quarter-over-quarter decline in the Q2 of this financial year, it got back to the quarter-over-quarter growth and revenue from this segment has come to INR 394 crores, lower, implying a growth of 17.9% quarter-over-quarter though on year-on-year basis it grew at a rate of 2.8%. Also the revenue for the catering segment is well ahead of our quarterly run rate in pre-COVID.
EBIT margin for the segment came to 10.7% versus 10.6% on quarter-over-quarter and 5.5% on year-over-year basis. Really, our packaged drinking water segment has seen the third quarter of this financial year revenue coming at INR 75.1 CR, which implies a growth of 4.3% on quarter-over-quarter basis and year over basis growth is nearly 50%. This was a COVID affected year. EBIT margin from this segment saw good improvement this year to 11.8% versus 7.5% quarter-over-quarter basis and 10.1% on year-over-year basis. Tourism segment.
In this quarter three of this financial year, the revenue share came to around INR 147.8 CR, which implies a growth of 49% on quarter-over-quarter basis, and a strong growth of more than 100% on year-over-year basis. Importantly, the segment EBIT margins saw a sharp turnaround to green at 10.8% versus a loss of 5.5% on quarter-over-quarter basis and 10.1% on year-over-year basis. That is after pandemic. For quarter three of this financial year, the net worth and the cash and the bank balances of the company remains at INR 2,494 CR and INR 2,133 CR respectively at the end of this quarter.
That brings me to end of my opening remarks, where I have given you a brief highlight of the financial figures. We can now move to the question answer session, please. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone.
Your voice is little low.
I repeat. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the questions reassemble. We have our first question from the line of Deep Shah from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity. Ma'am, wanted to understand a bit more on the catering segment. What is making these margins remain flat despite having record numbers? How should we think about the margin trajectory or the pricing power that we have? That would be my first question. Yes, ma'am.
In catering we have three segments. One is the mobile segment, another is the static segment, another is the e-catering segment. In the mobile segment, we carry two types of trains. One is the RSD trains. Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Gatimaan, et cetera. They fall in one category. These are the prepaid trains. In these prepaid trains, our margins are very, very less. We only get the turnover less the profit margin. You will find, you might have noticed that lot many trains are being inaugurated on a prepaid form right now. You are getting more of a turnover, less of the profit margins, because entire revenue, which is, our margins are not merely, I think five, merely only 10% in e-catering. That gives the overall momentum.
Gives the overall momentum to the catering business is merely around 11% to 12% only if we add income from the other sources.
Right, Ma'am. Ma'am, as a follow-up to this, could you give some update on this new initiative in catering that we had launched about having third-party providers deliver meals to the seats. I think that was with a much better margin, maybe 12% directly to us without any OpEx. Could you give some update on that? How has that been shaping up?
I would like to correct you, PG , that the margins in the e-catering segment are 15%, not the 12% one. This business is growing at a rapid pace. In the Q3 , we have nearly achieved on an average of 40,000 meals a day as compared to our pre-COVID level. Also, we have surpassed all the pre-COVID levels also. Number of stations have gone up from 310 to 337. Vendors have also gone up. Aggregators have also been added. Number of the food aggregators with the vendors have also gone up. We have also tied up with our B2C agents. That is MMP, Swiggy, Paytm, Goibibo, Relipay, et cetera. All these have contributed. Very recently we have launched our first phase with the WhatsApp booking, which I was just going to contribute further.
As social media has become now a base, a very important base for rendering, the online businesses. We have taken a lead, and the first time we started working with the WhatsApp and brought in the catering segment, so that our margin in this segment can improve.
Right, ma'am. This is very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to participants to press star and one to ask a question. We have our next question from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I have a question on the catering segment. If I remember correctly, in the last quarter, our ESP and pantry car reached roughly with generation 15 and 23 respectively, and you had also highlighted that almost 200 trains were on right time. What is the position here in terms of the recovery and any plans to expand our pantry car reach? Also as a follow-up, can you approach the tariff hike which was happened in the catering segment if IRCTC had an option to opt out of meals? There has been a considerable time since we have seen this title. What kind of trend are we seeing with the opt-out rate, higher or lower?
First I'll be answering your first question, Jinesh Joshi. That is how many, if there is improvement in the number of our trains, yes, tendering process has gone further. Not only the new trains, 10 trains which have been added recently in the Vande Bharat series, we have been able to award all the contracts. In the all the trains, if the pantry cars are there, all those trains contracts have been awarded. Now, we would be going ahead with the, we have also gone ahead far ahead in the [PHE] direction also, where the pantry cars are also not there. In that segment, we have already awarded nearly 752 tenders. Out of that many, most of the trains have commissioned their business. 84 LOA have been awarded, the commencement has to take place because they have to deposit security, etc.
You can say total train segment in the train side vending would be 836. Trains will be 452. Last time, in the last quarter, the train number was 440. Now this is 452. The trains with the pantry car. The trains where the pantry car is not there, that is around 752. This makes the total number nearly 1,200 for these trains. Any train which is offered to IRCTC is awarded immediately because every train is a revenue, with or without pantry car. Answer to your second question, Third question. That was your third question. Second question was about the sales assessment. Sales assessment exercise has been completed. It is being consolidated because the impact is very varied in one zone.
In one zone, in the peak season, no impact has been seen. In the other zone, some impact has been seen. Some consolidation, and we are getting that audit done. We would be raising the invoice if required, depending upon the thing. Peak period we have completed, and now the non-peak period is also almost done. In the various trains. We are consolidating, and maybe in the last quarter when we are concluding our financial results, we'll be giving you the entire information. The opt-out percentage. The opt-out percentage varies from train to train. This opt-out percentage earlier was 10, it rose to 20. In few trains it is 20, in few trains it is still less. It all depends on service level.
When the service level in the train is good, then the percentage becomes less. When the people look for more variety and the distances are long, people may opt. If the e-catering option and route is not available, our effort is to convert this opt-out percentage to the e-catering. That is what we are doing. WhatsApp is available, that is why we have gone for the WhatsApp kind of a booking also, that we are in position to garner the lost revenue which has gone out of our hands because of the opting out.
Sure. My key question is if the privatization opportunity has called for running some Vande Bharat trains on 100 routes which were identified. Is there any disruption from that? Because of asking this question, because currently as we talk, Vande Bharat is being rolled out. I just wanted to get your sense of is this leading to any further delay in the privatization plan?
The privatization was going to happen at the Railway end. Railway and catering had decided, then, we had participated also, but we had almost won the tender, but the award was not concluded because the participation was low. After that, there is no bid floating or no tender document has been floated. I may not be in position to comment on that. In case Railway decides to float the tender, IRCTC is in readiness, and our analysis may have to be updated afresh in the current scenario because many new trains are coming up, but catering for those trains is coming to IRCTC only. We are gaining from those trains also.
Sure. One last question. What is the company's revenue and number of ticket books?
The number of ticket books was surprisingly, we were earlier anticipating that with the going away with the 2S category, our overall booking will go down. It is nearly the same. Our average booking in the year 2021 was INR 11.45 lakh tickets a day. Now it is average booking of the last three quarters has been 11.89 tickets a day. It is nearly same. In the Q1 it was little more, then the Q2 it went down, Q3 it went down. Some impact of the H2 has been there. Our convenience fee has contributed nearly 67% of the revenue in the internet ticketing segment, and non-convenience fee resources have contributed to 33%.
If you ask me the quarter, this total revenue of the nine months in the internet ticketing, from convenience fee it was INR 604 crores, and from non-convenience fee it has been INR 307 crores. Putting together the total revenue from this segment has been INR 911 crores. The profitability margin in the internet ticket segment has contributed at the same rate, highest ever margins have been Seen in this. I think your next, last question was, can you please repeat, sir?
The number of booked. You gave us the average number for the first nine months, but if you can just give the absolute quantum for each quarter.
The Q3 segment is 11.3 lakh seats are there.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Shivam Kumar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, ma'am. My question is regarding tourism sector, that its margin is around 9%. Where do you see the future margin?
Yes. You might have noticed that IRCTC has launched a Bharat Gaurav series. In that series, we have already taken eight rakes, two rakes we had already with us, that is the total inventory of our 10 rakes. These are the theme-based rakes which are going through a design specially, because earlier when we used to launch a route, at times we had difficulty in getting our rolling stock. Now we are in readiness, and we have a tourism rolling stock which is customized to the tourist needs. Each rake can run as a minimum it can run up to 240 days, minimum. Maximum it can go up to 300 days also in a year.
Normally, when we were doing Bharat Darshan and other trains, put together we were not running more than 150 trains in a year. With these rakes, we would be running more than 300 trains in a year, rather more. We would be adding more. Many new circuits, we are going to launch. We have already experimented few and you will find the new circuits in the pipeline. That is going to give you an additional revenue of nearly INR 200 CR if everything goes right in the tourism sector and nothing adverse happens, because hospitality is very sensitive sector and tourism is the worst affected. Anything goes wrong, your booking goes down. If everything goes right, then tourism has a bright future. Not only the total revenue in this segment is going to rise, but the margins are also going to improve.
My second question is regarding Rail Neer. Any plan of increasing the price of bottle as when it was last revised also?
We have found some increase in the production cost of the Rail Neer because of the increase on the pet cost. That is the preform cost has gone up. We are examining this. We are not yet sure how it is going to take forward. We are trying to make up with the increased volume. Our Bhusawal plant is ready. Anytime it can be commissioned. Simhadri is also ready. Anytime it can be commissioned. Final bottle, all licensing, factory licensing work is pending. We had thought of launching both of them in the month of January, but somehow some licensing work is still pending. We would be trying to complete within this month or by March we would be launching both. We will be gaining by increasing the production.
The increase in the pricing, yes, we are working on, we are still examining. We'll let you know very soon.
My last question is regarding the overall margin. Where do you see it stabilizing in FY 2024? As it is consistently declining in the last seven quarter.
Last quarter, in one quarter we are contributing nearly, if you see the past quarter, the total revenue and each quarter is giving nearly INR 850. In the Q1 of this financial year, we had the revenue from the operations, revenue from the all resources have been nearly INR 852. In the Q2 it was INR 805. In the Q3 it is INR 948. Of course, this includes the taxation. This includes the interest part of it also. The next quarter is also going to be the same because the number of our trains is going to increase only. But our profile, business profile is going to change because our contribution from the catering segment in the revenue portion is going to be higher than the internet ticketing.
If you ask me percentage contribution, the percentage contribution of the catering is going to increase and going to be nearly the pre-COVID levels. At that time, the catering was contributing nearly 45% of the revenue. That revenue has a low EBIT margin as compared to internet ticketing. Overall we may not be impacted and things are very good and very rosy. Our revenue pattern will change. Our profitability pattern will change, but overall we'll be a gainer. It looks good so far.
Ma'am, pre-COVID margin was 37%. It has come down now at 35% also.
Catering business and the internet ticketing business cannot be compared. That expenditure, the internet ticketing has less of an expenditure and catering has more, a little more expenditure. You have to do monitoring, you have to provide all kind of services. Manpower cost is also involved. Margin in that segment is nearly 12% only, 11% to 12%. There it was 82%. If revenue in that segment will rise, certainly overall impact will not be there because margin will be partially affected. Overall gain in the quantum will be there. That is what I said.
Okay, ma'am. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Dhawal Doshi from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, ma'am. I just have one question on debt acceleration. If you look at it on a CO2 perspective, it has reduced significantly. I just wanted to understand the reason behind it.
This was because we have done some provisioning. We had to do provisioning on advice of our auditors and accounting team. Excess provisioning for the depreciation had to be done.
This provisioning was with respect to?
In Q3 we have reversed excess provisioning.
Some excess provisioning was done in the previous quarter that had to be reversed in the Q3 . That is why it has changed.
Q4 will be-
Q4 will be okay.
Okay. Okay. Second question. In the notes, in the financials, we have mentioned that there is an increase in the coaching tariff for the coach and seat rate trains. If you could just give us some color as to when do we expect this to be received and what is the quantum of this?
This is an exercise which has been completed. We are concluding the results. Maybe in the next quarter you will get all the results. It is a very big exercise. We have to do every train line and all the means. Most of the trains we have completed, and we are going to publish the results soon. The impact on the revenue also and the license fee.
Okay. Thank you. That's it from my end.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My question pertains to the tourism business. Can you share where this growth has largely coming from? Is it the tour package side where we have seen it? Should we expect this similar momentum even more so in the holiday season in Q1?
It is going to be more, Rahul, because one is the pandemic impact is over, right? We have taken a fleet of the trains, which is again going to contribute in the next financial year, because most of the trains will be put into operation either in the March end or the first week of April or second week of April. Next year is going to be very good for the tourism. We got, the increase in the revenue in this quarter has been because election trains went up. Many tourist trains we ran. We also ran the Free State tourist train, we did well in the air packages also. Even in the luxury segment also, we have done very, very well.
Bharat.
Bharat Gaurav is a new fleet that we are adding to. That fleet, we have taken 10 rakes. Earlier, we were running only 100 to 150 trains in a year. Now we would be running nearly 300 trains. You can see the impact that our revenue in this segment is going to be to achieve a different height.
You said 300 train now versus what was the previous number?
150 only. We are going to double our train. Mass tourism is going to double.
Okay. For Tejas, if you could share the operating metrics in terms of the revenues and profit of it, Tejas during this quarter.
Tejas has done very well in this quarter because the festival season was also there and continue to do well. The overall revenue from the Tejas in this financial year, total of three quarters, comes out to be INR 115 CR, and expenses have been nearly INR 98.61 CR. The overall contribution of the Tejas is nearly INR 17.06 CR to the revenue.
Sure. On the again, Rail Neer side, can you share the number of bottles produced during this quarter and previous quarter? What we could do here to drive the business, given that at the time of IPO we said we are just doing 40% to 45% of the total demand, and now we have the capacity that, yes, the growth has happened, where it could go, once we improve the distribution of the current output that we have across regions.
The Rail Neer production, all plants utilization was running fine. The OPEX, much better than just after pandemic. In fact, if you see the capacity utilization of all the plants, average is nearly 75%. Out of the fact that December, January month, we have a less of a demand. Now in the January also we are running the plant at a capacity of nearly 70%, which used to be now 30%. We are storing the water to meet the requirement of the summer also. We can store the water up to six months. All water will go by March. If you ask me the total production that we have done, it is near 24 cr bottles we have produced so far in this financial year. We have done well in the Rail Neer segment.
Because of the increase in the production cost, because of the LPG rates, the margins have reduced, have been affected adversely in the Rail Neer segment, we are still examining it. Now they have reduced in this quarter. Now the LPG prices have reduced in this quarter. We will see the impact and the margins in segment will also improve. The new plants are ready, Rahul Jain. The plant will be ready, two of them will be commissioned within this financial year. We are waiting for one more license for both of them. Once they are ready, we are going to commission that.
Sure. Lastly, on the ticketing business, if you could give more in terms of UPI mix right now and AC, non-AC mix. Any further breakup on the non-convenience part of the business?
Yeah. Certainly. See, in internet ticketing, the average booking has been nearly 11.89 tickets a day, our revenue in this segment is INR 600 crores. This is more or less same. The pattern in all the three quarters has been nearly same. This INR 200 crores on the internet ticket ticketing. In spite of the fact that the 2S is not there, it has been the same. Our revenue from the non-convenience revenue sources has increased a bit. Whatever we have lost in the 2S, that is being compensated by the non-convenience fee resources. As I mentioned in my earlier con calls, that we are going to increase that revenue to the maximum, to the extent possible.
For the next two years, we'll have to bring this percentage, which is now 33% of our total internet ticketing revenue, to nearly 50%. Because 82% of the ticketing you have already got it, and some increase you can anticipate it, of course, because internet percolation is still happening in the country. We need to focus our resources on the non-convenience fee. That is one part of it. How many transactions are happening? What is the share of the UPI? It is nearly 32%. UPI is happening 32%. Second is booking is nearly the same in last five months. That is ranging between 12% to 13%. Your sleeper class is contributing the maximum.
As of now, it is nearly, I think, 44%, followed by third AC, which is 26.8%, nearly 13% is your second class, train AC is 6%. Like that, the rest all is very meager. The trains which we are operating is nearly 3,500, where we are providing the bookings.
Sure. That's it from my side. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rohit Bahirwani from Vijit Global Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My question is, we had applied for a license of payment aggregator, RBI payments. What is the status on that?
That is still being done. We have received some observations. We'll let you know soon about this. Our revenue from the payment gateway, as a PG, it has gone up. Let me give you the exact figure. Total revenue from the iPay has been, the net revenue to IRCTC earnings has been nearly, I think, INR 11.5 CR in these last three months. Our total revenue from, which is contributing to the revenue also of the company, has also gone up by good bit of margins. Till the time to go for an aggregator, we had applied, we have received certain observations, which we may have to do some changes in the company itself to get that license, and our entire business will be impacted.
Any dates on that, by when we can expect that to be completed?
We don't know. We are applying to the third agency, it will take one year to get it. We have just started in that after we got the changes. We have received certain observations, may have to do certain changes. However, In the Q1 , iPay contributed to INR 16 crore in the Q1 , Q2 INR 13 crore. In the Q3 , it was nearly INR 20 crore. Total contribution to the revenue has been nearly INR 51 crore. By the end of this year, it may be nearly INR 80 crore. Our net profitability margin will be INR 12 crore. Till the time we have to be satisfied with the PG revenue, till the time we get the license.
Okay. Thank you for answering my questions.
Thank you. We'll take a question from the line of Pugazh Manoharan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity, madam. I think, like, in the social media and in all the TVs, right, what we are hearing is that people are moving out left and right? I just want to check on the other things that we have. Flights, madam, like, I see, like, all the flights are booked and the rates are huge. How are we doing in flight bookings and also hotels, madam? How much revenue does it contribute to our ticketing business through hotels and flights?
Far in the put together in the all the three quarters, we have been able to We have done booking of INR 100 crore till now. Segments that we have booked is nearly, I think, 14 lakhs or so. Bookings have gone up as compared We have achieved the pre-COVID levels.
Nine, nine.
Overall revenue. The corporate seating also we have done well. If you ask me the net margins left with IRCTC, it is nearly, I think, INR 14 crore, around INR 14 crore is the margins left with IRCTC. We have also increased our fees in this segment, we have now achieved the 8 level. The pricing is very high. Let's see. Let's hope for the good. Our booking in this segment is now on the incremental side.
How are you faring with respect to the competition, madam? Just for example, we're just throwing a name, right? redBus in case of bus bookings or EaseMyTrip in case of flights. How competitive we are at? Are we, like, the least pricing or we are at par with them? Or like how are we placed there, madam, in terms of competition?
That may not be an appropriate comparison, I must say, because they are not into the railway tourism. They are only in the train booking. We do mass tourism also. If you ask me the OTAs work, OTA has four types of work. One is the rail booking, another is the air booking, then is the bus booking, and then is the other cab, et cetera, booking. The fifth is the tour packages. As far as the tour segments are concerned, we are there in the all the segments. Bus inventory, it is not my own inventory. If you ask MakeMyTrip, they own redBus. If you ask, take ConfirmTkt, they own. They have their own fleet of buses. What we do, we are tied up, in the case of a bus booking, we are tied up with the various state governments.
We are tied with the AbhiBus. We are tied up with your redBus also. We are getting inventory through them only. We are doing well in the bus and nearly one our net margin without much effort and providing the last mile connectivity has been we INR 1.1 CR case was we have earned. Total revenue that we contributed was nearly, I think, INR 4.26 CR. F rom October to the last quarter. Comparing myself with the MMT and that segment, the kind of a promotion they do, if I start spending that much expenditure, I may also get it. I think my strategy is not right. I will not comment on others.
Okay, Madam. L ast question, Madam. Is it like anything that we can evaluate this through a market share, say, out of total bookings, right, on the flight or whatever, right, in any schemes that we have? Is that like our market share is increasing that way you can see? That is also wrong assumption or wrong comparison?
It is very different. Not very, I must say the apple cannot be compared with oranges. We are going in the wrong direction. Every OTA has its own strength. MMT has a strength in the air, while the other Yatra has a strength in the hotels. I have a strength in mass tourism. That's where I have a strength, where I'm more functionally capable. We have started focusing in that, in the mass tourism, and we are bringing more and more trains, and we are trying to get nearly INR 250 CR as a revenue from that segment, from the train movement. Air booking is kind of, we are OTA, we provide. We need to grow. I don't disagree with that. At the same time, we have to see that all aspects are looked into.
So far we have a tie-up. We are also going to revise our terms and conditions and see what best we can do in this direction. Focusing only on the bus and air may not be appropriate, because we are a mass tourism leader. We have to see the masses first.
Okay. Sounds good, madam. The last question, [catching,] madam. You suggested, like, before, we are speaking to one of the focus retailers, right? We have our own focus retailers, things that we are still planning, right? Is there anything to analyze or any updates there, Madam?
Yes, we are still working on that. We have started tying up with many of the B2C platforms. Gradually, we are opening one by one. I mean, our speed is increasing. We are increasing the number of stations, the number of bookings. Impact is also seen. We have recently opened the booking along with the bus app. That is only as of now one-way communication. Within 15 days, the two-way communication will also going to happen. We are taking all steps so that our booking in this form gets increased.
Okay. All the best, madam. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This is the last question from the line of Shivam Kumar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Ma'am, my question is regarding the last quarter occupancy of IRCTC tour packages.
Last quarter occupancy of tour packages?
Yes, ma'am.
It has been good. That is why the revenue has been good.
Ma'am, how much occupancy? Suppose we have tour package 200 people.
In air we make a tour package of not more than 40, otherwise the rates of the air will increase. Generally, we are able to sell all the inventory. Our rail tour package, for example, from Mumbai is doing excellent. Vaishno Devi package is also doing excellent. Few packages do very, very good. Few packages where we don't get good response, we don't lose anything in that.
Okay, ma'am.
At times we are not able to sell all the inventory, sir. There are days when the days are bad and the market is not conducive, we are not able to sell the entire inventory, but we don't lose in the rail tour packages. The money gets revolved in the circuit. We release the berth three days ahead so that the berths are released to the common public.
Mr. Kumar?
Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. I would now like to hand over the call to the management for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am.
Thank you very much all the investors. You might have noticed that we have also declared a dividend, which is, so far the highest dividends, interim dividend declared by IRCTC, that is INR 3.8 per share, and it is nearly 155% of the share capital. Hope that will bestow your confidence in IRCTC. The company has just come out of the COVID. Things in the tourisms are getting improved. Our business lines are showing certain modulation. Is our earnings pattern. Let me assure you on behalf of this company that the company continues to be a very good option to invest with, and the returns on this company are improving, and we are going to contribute. We are looking forward for a better Q4 and an entire financial year ahead.
Wishing you all the best and, requesting all of you to bestow your confidence in IRCTC as you have been doing in the past. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Dolat Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.