TIRUCHI: The Union Budget has evoked mixed response from consumer organisations.
“This is the first Budget that combines the Railway budget and the Railways has been given just two paragraphs. A long pending demand has been met with the creation of a separate passenger safety corpus of ₹1 lakh crore for five years,” said S.Pushpavanam, secretary, Consumer Protection Council, Tamil Nadu. Safety will improve depending on how well the Railways spend this, he said.
It is a welcome decision to do away with the service charge for tickets booked through IRCTC and the move to list IRCTC on the stock exchange would help bring about accountability. Although several committees have recommended that the management structure of the Railways must be changed, it is disappointing that no effort has been made towards this, he said.
The Finance Minister has reduced the tax rate for those in the slab of ₹.2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakhs and the tax concession of ₹12, 500 extended to other categories is welcome. Also appreciable is the proposed stringent action against tax evaders. He said that transparency in political funding could be expected as cash donations have been restricted to ₹2,000.
H.Ghouse Baig, consumer activist, expressed disappointment over the budget and said it lacked long-term vision for ensuring sustained growth. The railways in particular has been financially crippled and politically strangled due to the wrong and short sighted policies of the government.
“The decision of doing away with the Railway budget and merging it with Union budget was a wrong move and it will clip the wings of the Railways,” he observed. It does not augur well for the growth of the Indain railways. Railway projects were pending across the country. Funds are allotted in bits and pieces for different projects and there are huge delays which results in cost escalation over the years.
