An Eventful Journey Of IRCTC

Despite challenges, IRCTC's post-pandemic growth continues, and the company is now looking at other avenues to boost performance

- Prerna Lidhoo

0n August 18, Public Sector Company Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) floated a tender to onboard a consultant to monetise passenger data, including basic user details such as name, address, phone number, age, email ID, payment mode, class of journey, and even login and passwords. The tender mentioned that the revenue generation potential of the initiative would be to the tune of ₹1,000 crore. A nationwide furore followed, topped by a summons to its top officials by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, then led by Shashi Tharoor. Before the date of the summons, the company decided to withdraw the tender at its AGM.

Due to flip-flops like these, financial consultancy firm Prabhudas Lilladher maintains a neutral stance on the company. Its data monetisation plans got cancelled because it was related to some data breach in the privacy of users. It had plans to monetise passenger data. I've seen a lot of policy flip flops, which has been happening of late. That can be a big challenge for the company, says Jinesh Joshi, Research Analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher.

This revenue generation 'opportunity' aside, IRCTC has been going great guns, by any measure. Listed in October 2019, IRCTC's average market capitalisation jumped 96.7 per cent in the BT500 study period (October 2021 to September 2022). Its rank on the BT500 2022 list improved to 84, from 131 in 2021. Total income and profit after tax rocketed 127 per cent and 255 per cent, respectively, in FY22 against FY21. The company has zero debt.

Incorporated in 1999, IRCTC has delivered profit growth of 23.8 per cent CAGR over the past five years.