Additional Rs 2,028 cr Plan support expected

RAILWAY BUDGET 2004-05/ RAILWAY FINANCES: Expenditure jumps Rs 2,187.5 cr

The Railways today said it was confident of receiving an additional Plan support of Rs 2,028 crore from the finance ministry during the course of the fiscal.

Speaking to reporters after the presentation of the Railway Budget, Vijaylakshmi Vishwanathan, financial commissioner of the Railways, said the finance ministry was likely to release the entire sum demanded by the Railways, later in the year.

She said last year too, the finance ministry had released an additional Rs 300 crore of Plan support at the fag end of the year.

The Railway Budget for 2004-05 has projected an unchanged Rs 7,020 crore support from the finance ministry from that of the Interim Budget for the year.

However, the ministry has raised its annual Plan outlay to Rs 14,198 crore, including a Rs 2,933 crore outlay for the Special Railway Safety Fund. This is Rs 773 crore more than the outlay for the Interim Budget and Rs 1,280 crore more than that for 2003-04.

But in the process, the Railways have become more dependent on Plan support as none of the freight or passenger fare initiatives made in the past three years have improved its bottomline.

The operating ratio is projected at 92.6 for the current fiscal. It was marginally better in the last fiscal at 92.1. Even this improvement is based on an ambitious growth target of 7.45 per cent in goods traffic against a drop of 0.51 per cent in 2003-04. The fall is significant in a year when the country's gross domestic product grew 8.2 per cent.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has also factored in a growth of 3.6 per cent in passenger traffic in this fiscal, against a fall of 1.17 per cent in 2003-04.

At the same time, Prasad has set an ambitious Rs 44,902 crore target for gross traffic receipts.

However, there has been an almost Rs 2,187.5 crore rise in expenditure, largely on account of dearness allowance to Railway employees to the tune of Rs 934.66 crore and Rs 526 crore in additional fuel bills. To lower expenses, he has projected a reduction in expenditure in some areas.

Prasad, however, said stringent expenditure control and zero-based budgeting would help him check expenditure.

The minister has, therefore, been able to show a surplus of Rs 873 crore for 2004-05, of which Rs 715 crore has been earmarked for the Railway Development Fund and another Rs 158 crore for the Special Railway Safety Fund.