No hike?in?passenger?fares; freight?rate?rise?to?impact?prices; no?new?lines
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, Feb 26: The Railway Budget presented by Minister Suresh Prabhu hiked freight rates on cement, coal, foodgrains and pulses, urea, kerosene and LPG by up to 10 per cent to mop up an additional Rs 4,000crore a year, but spared passengers from any raise in fares. The minister ruled out privatization of the Railways. Surprisingly, the minister did not announce any new train or new routes, disappointing the nation.
Presenting his maiden budget, the first full-fledged exercise of the Modi government, said new trains would be announced later, in the duration of this session itself, pending a review that was ongoing. He said he would concentrate on consolidating the existing routes.
“I have not increased the passenger fares,” he announced at the outset of his hour-long budget speech and made no mention of the rationalisation of freight rates that was done by a sleight of hand through an explanatory memorandum.
The hike, to be effective from April 1, will cover a wide-range of items like cement, coal, grains and pulses, urea, iron ore, kerosene and LPG. While common salt has been left untouched, in the case of diesel and limestone there will be a marginal reduction in the freight adjustment done through re-classification of goods and distance rationalisation.
At the post-Budget briefing, Prabhu sought to justify the exercise saying rationalisation has always been done while Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla was at pains to project that on some goods actually there will be reduction in freight on longer distance.
Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha said there will be no increase in the prices of urea for farmers since the government will be subsidising the commodity. But officials estimated an additional revenue mobilisation of Rs 4,000crore a year on account of freight increase. Industry associations estimate a Rs 300crore subsidy burden on movement of urea and a Rs 600crore on foodgrains. Carriage of grain and pulses as well as urea will suffer a 10 per cent hike in freight while coal will attract a 6.3 per cent increase.
FACILITIES
In a Budget that had no big bang announcements but aims at providing more facilities, Prabhu unveiled 11 major thrust areas to improve cleanliness, better bed inen, helpline for ensuring security including camera surveillance for women
safety, ticketing and e-booking of meals of choice. Onboard entertainment on select Shatabdi trains, provision of wi-fi in B-category trains and 200 more stations to be brought under Aadarsh Station Scheme were some of the passenger amenities that the minister announced.
The Budget extended the window for advance booking of tickets from 60 to 120 days. An ‘Operation five minutes’ will be introduced for issuing unreserved tickets besides other initiatives like hot buttons, coin vending machines and concessional e-tickets for differently-abled passengers. E-catering will be launched for select meals from an array of choices, ordering food through IRCTC websites at the time of booking tickets and integrating best food chains into the project.
The cleanliness project includes new toilets covering 650 new stations, bio-toilets, national fashion technology to design bed linen, online disposal of bed rolls.
INVESTMENT
The Budget envisages an investment of Rs 8.5lakh crore in the next five years to be mobilised from multiple sources to cater to funding through multilateral development banks and pension funds. It hiked the plan outlay for 2015-16 by 52 per cent to Rs 100,011crore over the revised estimate of 2014-15. Passenger earnings growth has been pegged at 16.7 per cent and earnings target budgeted at Rs 50,175crore. Goods earnings is accordingly proposed at Rs 1,21,423crore, which includes rationalisation of rates, commodity classification and distance slabs.
Prabhu said a broad indicative investment plan has been prepared. “But the scale of investment needs is such that it will require us to seek multiple sources of funding. We will tap other sources of finance. Multilateral development banks and pension funds have expressed keen interest in financing new investments. “They seek sources of predictable and recurring revenue, which we can provide through the issuance of long debt instruments to fund revenue-generating railway projects,” the minister said.
THRUST AREAS
The thrust areas include efforts to make Railways the prime mover of economy again, resource mobilisation for higher investments, decongestion of heavy routes and speeding up of trains, passenger amenities and safety. Other coaching and sundries are projected at Rs 4,612 crore and Rs 7,318 crore. Gross traffic receipts are estimated at Rs 1,83,578crore, a growth of 15.3 per cent.
OPERATION FIVE MINUTES
Under the ‘Operation 5-minute’ facility, ticketless passengers can get regular tickets within five minutes of entering station. Other steps include making railway helpline number 138 operational 24×7, toll-free number 182 for security-related complaints and CCTVs in select trains for women safety.