Indian Railways Finance Corporation to raise Rs 8,842 crore via borrowings.
The Ministry of Railways, which recently received dividend cheques amounting to Rs 311.88 crore for 2009-10 from the public sector undertakings (PSUs) under it, has elaborated on the plans of some of these entities in the footnotes of the railway Budget.
Indian Railways Finance Corporation, Rail Vikas Nigam and Konkan Railway Corporation are among the PSUs finding a mention in the Budget. The Indian Railways has 11 PSUs under it.
In her speech, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said all 11 PSUs have performed well in 2009-10, with a turnover of more than Rs 15,000 crore, earning net profits of Rs 1,782 crore. The minister’s Budget speech mentioned that the PSUs paid a dividend of Rs 311.88 crore to the railways.
The railway Budget has said the revised estimates of 2010-11 exclude market borrowings of Rs 8,975.46 crore. This comprises Rs 8,842 crore proposed to be raised through borrowings by Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC) for financing the railway plan, Rs 133.46 crore to be raised by Rail Vikas Nigam for investing in various rail projects.
The revised estimate includes an additional grant of Rs 791 crore for a few national projects. In that context, the Budget talks of a loan of Rs 308.18 crore to Konkan Railway Corporation.
Recently, chairmen and managing directors of seven PSUs — Container Corporation of Indian Limited (Concor), Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), Ircon International Limited, Railtel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL), Rites Limited, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL)— were present at the Rail Bhavan to hand over the cheques to the railway minister.
The dividend amounts paid by these PSUs were: Concor (Rs.114.65 crore), IRFC (Rs. 100 crore), Ircon (Rs. 36.62 crore), Railtel (Rs. 15 crore), Rites (Rs. 23 crore), IRCTC (Rs.12.61 crore) and RVNL (Rs. 10 crore).
These PSUs paid a lower dividend of Rs 281.56 crore in the financial year 2008-09.
IRFC’s total income for the financial year 2009-10 was Rs 3,483.94 crore, expenditure was Rs 2695.53 crore and net profit before tax was Rs 788.29 crore.
As for Concor, its net sales were at Rs 3,702.27 crore and net profit at Rs 778.58 crore in 2009-10, according to unaudited financial results.
