This Railway Budget has slightly deviated from the routine. The minister has concentrated very heavily on providing passenger conveniences, whereas the norm has been to emphasise other aspects of the Budget. Everything in this Budget was focused on that, whether it was reservation on trains for females and senior citizens, providing hygienic food, an app, helpline, e-catering, etc. The minister has tried to give a boost to the travel experience.
The highlights are very clear. There has been no increase in fares for passengers or freight, which comes as a big relief for both categories. At the same time, the passengers have been given several travel experience improvement initiatives. But one can rightfully ask where the finances are going to come from given the decline in the performance in the current year.
What he has not covered properly is the Budget figures, which normally one does in a Budget—are the earnings, expenditure, shortfall in the previous year, the causes of these shortfalls and the methods to increase the revenue in the following year. That has not been well explained in the speech and will require a deeper analysis of the Budget documents to understand how the financial performance has been. A deeper analysis of the Budget documents will also show how the minister plans to increase revenue from freight without raising the rates. It remains to be seen how the basket will be increased and who will benefit.
A preliminary look shows that the railways performance, when comparing last year’s revised estimates with the budgeted estimates of the same year, has been negative on almost all counts—whether revenue from passengers and freight and even expenditure on passenger amenities, new lines, and doubling of tracks.
However, if you compare the 2015-16 revised estimate numbers with the previous year’s actuals, then you see an increase. That is a very ambitious target that was set, and perhaps there is the same kind of ambition this year as well. One can debate about how far these targets are realistic.
Nobody anticipated the decline in diesel price or that the railways would get a better rate for electricity, but that happened this year.
The author is a former Chairman of Railway Board
