Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q2 FY 2022 earnings conference call of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal the operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Devang Bhatt from IDBI Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks, Lizanne. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of IDBI Capital, I welcome you to the Q2 FY 2022 earnings call of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC. On behalf of IDBI Capital, I thank the management for giving us the opportunity to host the call. We have with us the management represented by Ms. Rajni Hasija, CMD, and Mr. Ajit Kumar, Director of Finance and CFO. I would now like to hand over the call to the management for opening remarks, and later we can open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, Rajni ma'am.
A very good evening to everyone. I welcome you all to this con call of IRCTC Limited for the quarter that has ended on 30 September 2021. I hope that you and your dear ones are safe, and I also wish a very happy Diwali and a healthy and a prosperous year for everyone. Now, as we start discussing about the results of the quarter two of the financial year 2022. The quarter has really seen some seen moderation in infections and continued momentum in the vaccinations, which has been positive in the travel and hospitality industry, which has started reviving now. Further, this places the industry in a very good position going into the festive season, though the risk of the third wave is still not completely behind.
Earlier today, IRCTC has announced its financial results for the quarter and a half yearly ended on September 2021. The same has been disclosed on both exchanges, too. I shall first give a brief overview of this quarter results, post which we shall be taking up the questions and answering them well on behalf of management. In this quarter, that is quarter 2 for the financial year 2022, IRCTC yet again demonstrated its resilient business model and has been able to significantly improve its operational performances. While normalization in the catering and the packaged drinking water and the tourism is still going to take some more time, internet ticketing has not been able to surpass its performance in the pre-COVID period.
In fact, in this quarter, that is quarter two of the financial year 2022, has been the best ever quarter for this segment. I congratulate all participants in this. On a consolidated basis, quarter two Financial Year 2022 revenue came at around INR 404.9 crores, seeing a strong growth from quarter one, where the revenue was only INR 243.4 crores. There is a significant improvement quarter to quarter, given that the quarter two of the financial year 2021 had the impact of pandemic. EBITDA on absolute basis was at INR 211.5 crores in the quarter two of Fiscal 2022, which is much higher than INR 111.5 crores in the previous quarter.
Against the loss of INR 5.6 crore in quarter two of the previous year, if we exclude the other income. Similarly, EPS of 9.9 grew from INR 5.2 per share on quarter-to-quarter, and against a minor loss year-over-year. Importantly, both EBITDA and earnings per share in this quarter, that is in quarter two of the Financial Year 2022, has been higher than that in quarter four of the Financial Year 2021 as well. With the resilient performance in this quarter, gradual opening up of the economy and the festive season vaccination happening, I believe that IRCTC is placed very well to continue to demonstrate improvement in its other operational areas and the performance is going to be better.
I shall now hand over the call to my colleague and our CFO, Mr. Ajit Kumar, who'll brief you on the financial and segmental performance of the company. Thank you very much.
Good evening, everybody, and festive greetings to you and your dear ones. I shall first give a brief overview about Q1 FY 2022 results, post which we shall have the question and answer session. Q2 FY 2022 revenue saw a sharp improvement both on quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year basis. The revenue of INR 404 crore grew by 66.4% quarter-on-quarter and by 3.6 times year-on-year, given that Q1 FY 2021 had the impact of the pandemic. Given that internet ticketing continued to drive the growth. As you know, it has the highest margin amongst the business segments. The EBITDA margin continued to make a new high and crossed the 50% mark and was at 52.2% versus 45.8% quarter-on-quarter.
Compared to a minor loss in Q2 FY 2021, if we exclude the other income. Let us now move to the business segments of the company. The first one, the internet ticket ticketing. This segment continues to be the most resilient business segment. Q2 FY 2022 revenue internet ticketing was at an all-time high at INR 265.3 crore, growing by 77% quarter-on-quarter, and significantly higher than INR 58.3 crore in Q2 FY 2021. The growth was driven by both the growth in ticketing volume and in non-service charge revenue, which have already moved back from 80% and was at 50.1% versus 77.9% quarter-on-quarter and 58% year-on-year basis. The travel segment has maintained a declining trend in EBITDA loss.
For Q2 FY 2022, the segment reported a very minor loss of just INR 16 lakhs versus INR 4.7 crore in Q1 FY 2022 and loss of INR 33 crore in Q2 FY 2021. Rail Neer has also maintained the momentum in improvement revenue and EBITDA. The Q2 FY 2022 revenue for the segment grew by 41% quarter-on-quarter to INR 41.2 crore and against INR 9.2 crores in Q2 FY 2021. EBIT margin improved to 6.8% for Q2 FY 2022 versus 6.2% quarter-on-quarter and a loss in Q2 FY 2021. The tourism segment, which has been the most hit by the pandemic for us as well as the entire industry, continued to see muted revenue and incurred loss at the EBIT level.
The cash and bank balances and net worth of the company as of the end of Q2 FY 2022 is INR 1,945 crore and INR 160 crore respectively. That brings me to the end of the company remarks. Now we can move to the question and answer session.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one on your 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 question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Madam, I just have one hypothetical question. I mean, if we assume that the decision to share the convenience fee had not been withdrawn, what recourse would we have taken? I mean, I want to understand, do we have the autonomy to take a price hike or charge on a per passenger basis? Just wanted your thoughts on that.
Shall I answer now or you have something more to ask, sir?
I have a follow-up, but I'll ask that after you answer this question.
Let me handle the first one. It is good in the interest of IRCTC that the decision of the sharing of the revenue of convenience fee has been withdrawn. Had that not been withdrawn, what we would have done? As we have been mentioning in various con calls that IRCTC has been given a liberty to decide its convenience fee, the amount that can be charged. That amount in various conferences investor meet also we investors have been suggesting that why not charge per passenger. At that time, management has been answering, "Let's not be that greedy." Secondly, we have also been given some dispensation to the UPI. Where almost 30% transactions are getting less of the convenience fee. Had the decision not been withdrawn, certainly we would have worked on those lines.
For that, we needed to have a full board and a lot of committee decisions to be taken, which would have taken some time at least. That forum was open for us, for which we had already started working. Our management had already started working on those lines. That alternative was available with us. But at the same time, you never know how this is going to take a view, because ultimately this was to be decided by a BoD, board of directors. There are various schools of thought. A lot of schools are there. This was an option available for IRCTC. We were left with that option either to increase the license fee. Actually, withdrawing the benefits to UPI, we can't dream of because it is our own indigenous product and we work in Atmanirbhar Bharat.
We would have further intensified the other revenues which we are already doing. You know that our dependency on the convenience fee revenues is gradually improving and our revenue from the non-convenience fee is also increasing.
Our focus is already there on that. Such decisions don't impact destiny of the company. I think I've been able to answer, sir, your question.
Yes, madam. Just one last bit from my side. There have been some media reports which state that this mandatory reservation facility in the general compartments, which was implemented during COVID, may not sustain completely and some rollback may happen. For instance, in 23 special trains, this reservation norm is not applicable. Do you expect a full rollback sometime around in the near future?
I cannot comment upon that, but that this is inventory of Ministry of Railways. If they are converted the general inventory into the second beds, they are also gaining out of that. I cannot comment upon the decision to be taken by Ministry of Railways. In the COVID time they have done that, but after COVID when everything normalizes, whether they are going to retain this or not, we don't know. We cannot comment at this juncture. However, I can tell you that around 40% of our reservation is coming. The excess reservation is coming. Normally, we will use to book around 8.5 lakh tickets in a day. As of now, our average ticket is around 12.5 lakhs. That is an add-on inventory that we have got because of this booking.
That add-on may not be there in case the ministry would like to withdraw that. The initial for which we have projected, which was projected in our DRHP document also, that 8.5 lakh tickets are going to be booked. There is some increment after we had released that and from 71% of railway booking, now we have reached around 81% of booking. That improvement is still there and people are diverting from offline to online and the more and more digital transactions are happening in the country is also a hard fact which we should not forget before making any decision in this.
Sure, madam. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Gujjar from Invesco Mutual Fund. Please go ahead. Nitin, your line is on talk mode. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. The question is also, again, on the similar lines on which the earlier participant asked. Can you help us understand what was Indian Railways or Government of India thinking while they were evaluating this proposal of 50% sharing of convenience fee?
Nitin Gujjar, I may not be the right person to answer this question.
I take your point, ma'am. Is this deferment of proposal to ask for 50% of convenience fee deferred on permanent basis or how should we see this as an-
Letter received by us looks read. Can we read like that? Can't withdraw.
Okay. Got it. On this second class, which has now become a part of the reserved category inventory, how should we see this going forward? This will stay or the normalization will come into picture and we'll start losing on that 4 lakh inventory that has got created additional?
It is very difficult for me to handle this because this inventory belongs to Ministry of Railways, where the general category has been converted into the reserve category. Since the people are opting for it means people have not denied it. There is a comfort zone also involved in that. Earlier, they were going with a lot of uncertainty. By converting this, the certainty amongst the people has also been created. There are going to be few takers who will like to continue in that. There may be a few takers who would like to have a general inventory. Perhaps at this juncture, this question cannot be answered by IRCTC. This is a excess train that we could capture.
Got it.
We could provide the environment and could make some food losses come down by facilitating those customers and providing them the inventory, maintaining the balance, reserve, et cetera, so that this booking doesn't go to waste and we are able to tap into the form of a convenience fee to this.
Fair point, ma'am. Just a clarification. Today we have an inventory available of 12.5 lakh per day.
We have been able to book 12.5 tickets per day.
Okay.
The normal inventory in the reserve segment is 8.5 lakh tickets in a day. Average size in one ticket is around INR 1.7 these days. Earlier it used to be INR 1.9, but after COVID it is INR 1.7.
Got it. For the quarter, what would have been the ticket booking or PNR booking for the quarter?
I'll give you the figure. In quarter two, the total tickets booked was around 11.22 crore nearly. Average will be around 3.7. You can take it as 3.7 crores. The passenger traveled in the ratio of 1.7.
Got it. One last bit on UPI, you mentioned that we are right now not asking for any kind of additional charge.
No, I did not say this.
Okay. My reading was bad then.
For UPI, instead of INR 15 we charge INR 10 in sleeper class. In AC segment, instead of INR 30 we charge INR 20 in the case of AC class. That is to promote Atmanirbhar Bharat and promote digital payments in India.
Got it.
We are a big gainer of the digitization.
Mm-hmm. Perfect, ma'am. I think, that's it from my side. Thank you. I'm done from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Operator is disconnected. Can we have the next question, please? I think disconnect [Non English ].
Disconnect [Non English].
[Non English] .
Thank you.
Thank you.
She's back.
The next question is from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a question that we have seen this massive swing in our stock prices, which I would blame to the investor community. But part of the issue on account of you know the input coming from Railway, Government of India on various elements such as you know convenience fee sharing and maybe merger with Quess and RailTel, those kind of events. While I can understand you know your limitations, but what I essentially want to convey or request is that there has to be a faster and frequent communication or clarification to avoid scope for such speculation.
Because essentially the business has a lot of dependency on railway and what can you know kind of give us comfort that if such event happen how you know we would be able to safeguard interest of the minority shareholder?
The confidence which I can give, I think, IRCTC can provide through its operating performances. Since most of our business are railway dependent, railway as a policy maker decide something and IRCTC as a follower, as a extended arm of railway implement that. Normally we discuss with each other. In rather this discussion is happening very frequently on daily basis on all the subjects. These are not that issues are not discussed amongst each other, with each other. There have been few gaps in the past. I cannot really say [Foreign language: ki aisa nahi hota] that the people don't discuss and such kind of decisions are taken. Your discussion point has been noted, and we'll also try to communicate to our ministry that investor is worried about that and investor would like to have more confidence.
If this kind of a dialogue happens again and again, we'll certainly communicate to the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
Right.
Which we have done also.
Right. What happens to some of the segment where, you know, we are getting immensely benefited because of parts of the railway ecosystem. There is no revenue arrangement. I can understand in the ticketing they have showed their interest. Of course it has been withdrawn. In catering business we are already doing it. In tourism, we pay whatever haulage charge and everything which is required. In Rail Neer business, again, there is no sharing as such. What happens in case something of that sort is considered in that kind of a business at a later point of time? Also, as you rightly said, [Non English ], what could you might have done in such an event, in terms of pricing increase or UPI discount abolishing.
Does that also somewhere imply that if we do a pricing hike in future, it may happen that it may come along with sharing with the railway, so eventually the benefit to the minority would not be any different?
One is securing the interest of minority. Second is handling the expenses of IRCTC. The representation which IRCTC made to Ministry of Railways was on the basis of, one is of course for the investors interest. Secondly, the expenditure that IRCTC would like to do in upgradation of the site. Because there are many things which we require to maintain this website. The infrastructure requirement is huge. By which railway has given us this work. Railway has also said if 80% inventory is being made, booked through IRCTC for booking one ticket, railway might be spending. This was a very old calculation I have. More than INR 60 railway was spending for booking one ticket. If the same work has been given to IRCTC, you can calculate the amount of a saving which railway has done.
It is the digitization that has really helped and infrastructure placed by IRCTC and the experience of IRCTC in the last 20 years that has helped in maintaining this infrastructure in a very conservative manner. Suppose we increase the price and there can be a sharing with the railways. I don't think so, this can be discussed at this juncture. There has to be lot of deliberations on this subsequently with the ministry. We would like that to discuss in detail. In any case, we will be requiring some funds for maintaining our infrastructure, and we would also be requiring lot of manpower to handle such huge booking. Some other arrangements for upgrading the site and making the deal right, et cetera, handling all the risk involved in the business.
There are risks because as we know that there are no transaction charges in the case of a debit card, in the case of a payment which are less than 2,000 INR. All where we were earlier running in the non-convenience fee process, they are not there. These things are happening, the industry is changing. Till the industry is changing, the flow of revenue that is coming to IRCTC is helping the handholding in the other segments. There was a time when this money was taken away in 2016, 2017, at the time of demonetization. At that time catering helped. When during COVID, catering and railway was not there, so internet ticketing helped. That is what the resilient business model IRCTC has. Our growth is not only vertical, it is actually horizontal.
The more domain we add so that we can cover up the losses of the other segment and together as we come up as a great strength.
Right. In the catering and the tourism business, if you could share your thoughts in terms of when we expect the revenue getting aligned in the catering segment with the passenger traffic. We've seen this license fee run rate is, you know, quite low compared to the normalized run rate. Also similarly on the tourism business, our losses have widened in this segment in this quarter, which is a bit surprising, you know, because we are seeing the general tourism and hospitality across PS has seen massive improvement. When we could see this in our numbers as well?
In the tourism, our losses have widened as compared to the previous quarter. There is a reason because the earning of the Tejas is being added into it. There is some revision in the Tejas policy for which we have requested Railway Board to reconsider. The whole pattern of the Tejas has been changed. For which we have already requested Railway Board to reconsider so that our these losses can be curtailed. We can at least break even. In spite of the festive bookings, we are not able to make good of the losses done previously. Secondly, we have also raised certain issues of passing the benefit of the costs measured during the period when the train was not running. These are the few issues which we have discussed with Ministry of Railways.
Because of those losses being guided in the tourism, otherwise, other than Tejas you talk about, the tourism is in profit. These we are taking a concrete decision on the Tejas. Let us see, we are hopeful that we'll get some rescue out of that. If we are not, then we'll take a tough decisions in this option. Rather we'll be constrained to take a tough decision.
This would be like reducing the frequency, increasing the price?
We'll try many such things are there. We'll either increase price or we'll decrease the frequency or curtail our own expenses, do the re-tendering so that we are able or increase the non-fare revenue which we have already done. Money for that is yet to be taken. We will try hard so that our this segment also makes up the profit. Otherwise hard core tourism is in profit.
Catering, why it is still-
My answer to my second question is, your first question will be that catering we have already raised the matter to Ministry of Railways and they are taking some time for examination. Perhaps they are waiting for the festival period. The festival period you might have seen the crowding everywhere. Last year when in the month of April, May, the second wave cropped in after the festival period only. People are just waiting. Let's hope for the good. We have already reminded Railway Board even today also.
Right. This is actually the issue that
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Jain.
This is follow-up. Please allow me. Thank you so much. Ma'am, the thing is that as you just answered to some of these questions, you know that you said there is a whole price increase in the case of Tejas which has resulted into despite higher volume we incurring losses in that business. Again, the single point impact is the change in policy by the railway. Similarly in catering also we are not able to cope up with the relevant traffic base revenue because the GST is being imposed by the railway. I am not saying that we are trying to do something which is not in best interest of the shareholder.
Of course, the decision-making for us actually lies well beyond the conventional thought process of the board sitting at the IRCTC, or they have their own limitations to that. That is the big question out here that we are doing fabulously well as an organization, but how we will be able to deal with such risk because we are not able to address the issue which we actually have just because the call has been short at some other place.
Let's go to the root cause of it. Why did the Ministry have to withdraw the catering? Ministry had to take a tough call because there was a COVID, and there were many contact points, and Railways never wanted to be party in spite of COVID. This was a tough decision. No organization is. We are losing. Railways is losing, equally losing because our distribution of the revenue is also there. 45% of our share goes to Ministry of Railways in this. They are also loser. They have foregone their INR 700 crores in that. If you recall our previous discussions that we used to do in the year 2020, that in the year 2021 our revenue from the catering should have been around INR 1,500 crores, out of which 45%, around INR 700 crores would have gone to Railways.
Railway also has foregone their revenue in the interest of a nation to save our life. The tough decisions at times are taken to take care of a better to get a better deal. Life-saving, nothing can be better than saving a life.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Shyam Sundar Sriram from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Ma'am, my first question is, what is the basis for this revenue sharing with Indian Railways? Is there any underlying economic logic to share? That is the first part of the question. Secondly, now, IRCTC also works with many OTA agent as well, where the agent charges an additional convenience fee and there is a revenue share with IRCTC as well. Is this also decided by Indian Railways or is this decided by the IRCTC board per se? Tomorrow Indian Railways decides to change that also. Is that something that is possible if Railways decides to change your terms of agreement with your OTA agents per se? Those are the two questions.
Well, I would like to answer your second question first as compared to the first. Like, the Ministry of Railways has already decided that the agent can charge INR 10 and INR 20 a ticket. That is already decided. In that, if the OTA is there, he cannot charge, his fee cannot be more than that. But however, the IRCTC takes an additional money from him in the form of INR 12. That is the decision of a OTA. The agreement to appoint OTA is done between IRCTC and OTA. Ministry does not have any access to that. However-
Ministry decides the agent charges, how much they can charge.
No. That is continuing for all B2B and all B2C. Any kind of a agent can charge only this much.
Mm-hmm.
INR 20-40 rupees. They can charge INR 20-40. That is being done by them. Over and above what OTA policy has, what is B2B, what is B2C, how the rail RTAs will be there, and how the TSA will be appointed is all decisions, internal decision of IRCTC management.
Okay. Understood.
You said what has been the logic behind that. Well, I've already answered that. My answer remains the same. That Ministry has decided that. Ministry has withdrawn. IRCTC is not in position to comment.
Okay. No, ma'am, I was just trying to understand, is there any economic logic in terms of because used by Indian Railways or on the back-end reservation. Is there any sort of economic or a logic for IRCTC.
I understand that Ministry has saved lot of money by doing the online reservation if the work is being not looked after by them. IRCTC is also incurring lot of expenditure in maintaining the infrastructure. We need to upgrade that. This is that we have already been telling to our investors all the time that we it is a continuous process. We have already awarded many contracts for upgrading our infrastructure.
Understood, ma'am. Ma'am, can I ask one more question? You said IRCTC has the freedom to raise the convenience fee. Now, what factors that you will consider that you go into whether you have to raise the convenience fee? As in, is it simply license services inflation per se, or what will you consider?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Please complete your question.
Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. That is my question.
See, there are many factors. When we will increase our license fee first our expenditure becomes so much that we are not able to handle our expenditure under service. The revenue that we receive from the convenience fee is lesser than that. As of now, we are able to handle, so we don't want to put any burden on the customer. At the same time, we have to look to the overall interest of the country that is in the form of promoting the Atmanirbhar Bharat concept and creating our own gateway, et cetera. As long as we are able to handle it well and add a good amount of revenue to our company, getting good profits, I don't think so there is any need for the management to increase the convenience fee. If there is some shortage, then management will take a call.
Understood, ma'am. Thank you very much. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Urmil Shah from Haitong Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, ma'am, and thanks for the opportunity. I'll maybe try and channelize the discussion on the positives. If we look at the internet ticketing segment, ma'am, in this quarter, it appears that not only the you know volume-based benefit has enabled us to do all-time high revenue, but even the non-service charge revenue has touched a all-time high as regards the quarterly run rate. If you could throw you know light on the same.
Yes.
How should we look at it over the next couple of years?
Well, I can tell you that the convenience fee of this quarter two has been around INR 299 crore.
Oh.
Yeah.
Quarter two.
Quarter two. Just wait one minute.
Convenience fee INR 1.
Sure, ma'am.
Yeah. In the first half year, our total fee has been INR 289 crore. That is in the first half. Out of it, INR 104 crore in the first quarter and INR 185 crore in this quarter. Non-convenience fee, earlier we had 46, now we have 18. Out of which I can give you the sharing. All the time investors have been asking why the advertisement revenue from our side has been less. Let me tell you with the great pride that this time our 20 crore almost we have received through advertisement. So where we have been able to tap a good government ads in for our portal. Then commission also has seen some very high because the overall ticketing has been high, so the commission has been high in the B2C segment.
AMC.
AMC also, our AMC fees has also increased. All segments, except for the SBI, where our offer was there that we will not charge revenue to some, has shown some improvement. This, our focus is convenience fee. Yes, we have to have, we have to tap that. But at the same time we need to increase our non-convenience fee revenues. This is a positive side and there is non-convenience fee has shown increase of 74%, whereas the convenience fee has also shown the increase of 78% over the quarter one.
Sure. Ma'am, while on a quarterly basis we might have variation, but if I just annualize the INR 80 crore, you know, that comes to around INR 320 crore on a full year basis as the non-service charge revenue. Would you say that is achievable in FY 2023 as a whole? We might have quarterly variation in this. Sure. That was helpful. Ma'am, my second question was on the e-catering side. If you could let us know what is the kind of volume being done, as well as, you know, as regards getting the aggregators, not the top two ones, but the smaller ones, to get the food options on board.
Okay. I have a good news here, that we covered, I think in the month of April and October 2021, if I take the data, our average meal per day booking has been around 24,210 as compared to the average of 21,000 previously. The total value of orders was to the tune of INR 27.8 crores. The aggregators which are live around 10 in number, RailYatri, RailRestro, Rail Rasoi, Zoop, Garg Rajdhani, OLF, Spicy Wagon, Komalam, Yatri Bhojan, etc., are there. We have around 1,000 odd active service provider vendors who are associated with us, and we are also in process of mobilizing our own food plaza and
Ma'am, just a follow-up on that. As regards the 20 B2C agents, how many of them would be on the supply side? On the ordering side we have never had any problem. As regards providing the food options, how many of these B2C agents would be on the supply side?
These B2B agents are not in the supply side, but we are going to have one B2C agent soon, whom I will not name.
Sure.
Because our approval is yet in the process. In a day, maybe in the next earnings con call or investors meet, by the time the approval will be there, I would be sharing his or her name. There are operators in the B2C segment who are our ticketing agents, but they would be in the supply also. RailYatri is one. RailYatri is my e-catering agent also and the ticketing agent also. Right.
Right.
This Komalam. Komalam is my supply agent, but he is maybe less of a e-ticketing also he does. Similarly, we are going to have two to three more who have become our ticketing agent also and will also be in the supply chain for the e-catering. They are in process of tying up with the other hotel chains who can become. Ultimately, they book orders for those hotels and the supply chain for which we have already linked up and done one-to-one contract. They are gainer of our linking with them. Ultimately IRCTC is gainer. Whether they earn or we earn, the link to the IRCTC remains the same.
Sure, ma'am. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Revanth from SBI Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Madam, you mentioned that we are in constant discussion with Ministry of Railways for policy related matters. Whether on this convenience fee, circular which was issued by them, were we in discussion with them to understand the impact on our company or were we left blindsided by them?
Well, I'm not in position. I will reiterate my answer, sir. I'm not in position to answer this question. I've already answered. The good part of it that the charges have been reversed, withdrawn, so let's accept the fact.
Okay. Secondly, could you tell us on the developments of merger with RailTel and CRIS?
Such things are decided by our board, the DIPAM. We have not received any official communication in this regard.
Okay. Couple of more things. Could you provide any update on the privatization of trains for which we have won couple of tenders and any update or progress on that. Also on our payment gateway application which was pending with RBI, could you give us any update on that?
Our payment gateway application, for that we have recommended changes in our MoA that has gone to Ministry. We have discussed today also. It has gone to the top authority. Once the Ministry approves, we will be sending to the rest of the approving bodies so that it becomes part of our memorandum of association in the main objects clause. After that, we would be applying to RBI for getting the license for the same, so that the payment aggregator services can be used. As far as the payment gateway is concerned, we can always use it.
Okay.
First thing and I forgot your first question. Can you please repeat, sir?
We have won couple of tenders for this privatization of trains.
Yeah.
Can I get an update on that? Yeah.
We have not received any communication so far. Perhaps we will get it by tomorrow or day after. Let's hear from them, when what ministry takes the decision.
Okay. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question that is from the line of Bharat Parekh from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear.
Yeah. Good evening, ma'am. This is Bharat Parekh. I head the infrastructure research for Hong Kong headquartered investment bank called CLSA in India. I must congratulate you for the initiatives the management has taken to reach out to the market and improve the communication. I think it's a great thing, and I must appreciate that. Also, I just wanted to ask you, ma'am, from an investor relations perspective, how do we reach out to the company? Because we have been writing multiple emails to investors and also other email IDs which is available on your website. Unfortunately, we are not able to reach, and also nobody picks up the landline. If you can guide us, how do we reach out to you to understand your company a bit better?
We have a dedicated investor relations officer, Mr. Anil Sharma.
Okay.
Far he has been using his personal email ID. I noted your point. Very soon he'll be communicating and putting it on our website. That zero web kind of ID which is universally accepted, which can be there permanently on the website, will be created and the person's phone number of the person will also be mentioned in the site. Your points have been noted, sir. A good suggestion. Thank you very much for that.
Right now we are emailing at asharma2490@irctc.com. Is that the one, ma'am?
Yes, sir. It is the same. Anil Sharma is the person.
Okay.
Can you please give me your email ID, sir? You please share after this conference. My number you said you can give me a message. I'll find out where these mails are going.
Ma'am. How do I reach you? That will be my pleasure, ma'am.
Please share.
Ha.
We are here to sort out the issue. We don't want any investor to say this, that his query, his or her query has not been answered.
That is so nice of you, ma'am. Really appreciate the thought process you have. Truly commendable, I must say. Would be my pleasure to reach out to you and be in touch with you and understand the company. Really appreciate it.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Mayank Babla from Dalal & Broacha. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah.
Good evening, ma'am. Thank you for taking my question. Just I wanted to delve further in the non-convenience part of the internet ticketing. You said INR 20 crore was from the advertisements. Could you give the details of the balance revenue in that?
Yeah, I'll read out for you, sir. In the first half year, I'll take the half year figure. Convenience fee revenues has been INR 289 crore.
Yeah.
The service charges other than the i-ticket has been INR 23 crores. The advertisement income is actually divided into two parts. For our convenience, we have divided into the two parts because we are maintaining it like that. In one part we have received INR 5.84 crore, and in the second part we have received around INR 15.77 crore. Annual maintenance charges we have received around INR 58.34 crore.
Okay.
e-wallet, that is the e-wallet, closed wallet that we run INR 2.79 crores in that. Commission in the form of a B2C segment that is INR 4.39 crores. The agent replacement charges. When we change the agent, we also charge something. From 139 license fee we take it, that is also INR 2.36 crores. The agent login authentication and inquiry charges also we have realized. We have monetized through inquiry. There also we have earned around INR 1.10 crore. More and more revenues of the revenue. We are monetizing our website, and that is why our revenue in the non-convenience fee has been 74% more than the quarter one and has been so far highest in any quarter.
Thank you, ma'am. Second related to the convenience fee was, you said 40% was from the general class. Ma'am, can you give the split between AC and non-AC for the quarter in terms of percentage?
I will give you for the second quarter, sir.
Yeah.
Second quarter average is First AC 0.3, that is less than 1%. You know that executive, First AC put together will be around 1%, right?
Okay.
Second AC is around 3.5%.
Okay.
Third AC 14.9%.
Mm-hmm.
AC chair car is again 3.5%. Sleeper class is 47.3%. Second AC is 40%.
Okay. Sure, ma'am.
The total inventory booking is around average 80.23% in the same quarter. That is July, August, and September. As of now we have 3,000 trains for which we are providing these services.
Okay, sure, ma'am. This last question was regarding the Rail Neer. I believe this quarter we had one plant also up and functioning. What is the latest capacity per day in Rail Neer?
As of now, we have 15 plants operative.
Mm-hmm.
Before COVID, when we were there, some issues are there in the Bilaspur plant which we are sorting out.
Mm-hmm.
Our capacity is around 15 lakh bottles in a day still there. Because, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto train not running, so we are running around 55%-60% of the capacity. Maybe during this festival period we have certain variation. Its demand might have gone up. I'm sorry, I'm not carrying that figure in front of me as of now. The capacity is 15 lakhs. I'll certainly inform you and put it on the website if required.
Okay. Sure, ma'am. Sure. That's all from my side. Thank you and all the best for the rest of the year.
Thank you.
I have some questions. In the matter of train in June quarter and how this compared to previous quarter?
In the month of June, it was around 2,500 trains. In July it was 2,745 trains. August, the number of trains more or less same, five to ten trains more added. In September, festival trains have come up. You have 2,900 trains, 2,849 trains. Now in October you have 3,019 trains. I think we have reached almost as far as the reserve accommodation is concerned in the form of special trains near to normalization with 10% or 15% shortage.
When do you expect the full catering services to start? What percentage of these trains you are offering catering at this point in time?
See, the train where you provide these services and where catering services and where you provide the reserved accommodation cannot be actually compared. Because for every train you want to provide the reservation, and you can provide the catering in the trains where you have, pantry car and where the trains which are running during the day. If the trains are running during the night, there is no need of a pantry. I can tell you the trains which are running with the WCB, pantry car we call them, the number is 346. Trains where we have catering is 288. The total number of our trains is 634 against the 500-odd trains. I think last quarter when we had discussion, we were running around 550 such trains.
Now it's just 6:34. Most of the trains are running contract. We have been able to cater for all of them. The short-term contracts are also running. We have been given all trains on the contract. Except four trains, which we run departmentally, because there's one litigation going on and we have to handle that.
Okay, ma'am. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Rajni Hasija, CMD of IRCTC.
Thank you.
For her closing comments.
It has always been a pleasure interacting with investors and good to know how the industry thinks about us. There have been certain ups and downs in the past, and life says, as life says, move on. We believe in moving on, and we are here and presented today our quarter two results. Here we have really registered a good amount of profit in all 8 segments. My CFO has already read it. In Rail Neer, we have bridged up the losses. In the catering, we have reduced the losses to the extent that the losses have reduced to only INR 19 lakhs. The good days are ahead, it looks. Normalization is happening. Vacation is happening. The impact of COVID is gradually going away. We need to be a little cautious during the festival season.
I hereby close saying that in the tourism sector also, in the core tourism, we are really doing fantastic and in the core tourism, really making profit. We are trying to contain the losses of the catering also, to the extent possible, and we are examining it very aggressively and taking tough calls on each and every department in the catering. With this, I finish my words here and wishing you a very, very happy Diwali. Maybe the next year after Diwali is very, very happy and healthy for every investor, everyone in this country. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of IDBI Capital, that concludes this conference call. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.