Budgeted surplus of Rs 2,642 cr lowered to Rs 951 cr in the revised estimates.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has painted a rosy picture for the next financial year (2010-11) despite failing to meet the targets she had for the current financial year.
Banerjee has budgeted for a surplus of Rs 3,173.09 crore for 2010-11, against Rs 951 crore in the revised estimate for this year. The projected three-fold jump has come despite a modest increase of 7.75 per cent in total receipts. Traffic receipts are expected to increase by 10.65 per cent to Rs 94,765 crore in 2010-11 from Rs 88,356 crore this year.
While allocation for various funds has increased for the next financial year, the railway minister has budgeted for a 4.39 per cent increase in working expenses to Rs 87,100 crore.
During the current financial year, working expenses are projected to rise by 16.15 per cent to Rs 83,440 crore, as against 71,839 crore last year.
A key feature of this year’s Railway Budget was under-provision for replacement of old assets and for creation of new ones.
From Rs 11,000 crore being allocated to the development fund in 2007-08, the provision has declined over the years to Rs 951 crore in the revised estimates for this year. Next year, it is projected to go up. The situation in the capital fund, used for creation of fresh assets is far worse.
From a provision of Rs 2,359 crore in 2007-08, it declined to Rs 1,391 in 2008-09 and in the revised estimates for this year, Banerjee has not set aside any funds. Even next year, she intends to transfer a meagre Rs 373 crore to the capital fund.
This year, Banerjee has missed most of the budget targets she had set in July 2009 despite lowering the allocation for the depreciation fund and the development fund. The budgeted surplus of Rs 2,642 crore has been lowered to Rs 951 crore in the revised estimates. This is despite lowering the allocation for the development fund by Rs 1,049 crore and a shortfall to the tune of Rs 825 crore in the allocation for the depreciation fund.
The railway minister also failed to meet the budget target for traffic receipts and marginally improved upon the projection on total receipts. In the same vein, she overshot the expenditure projection by 14.68 per cent.
Financial Commissioner Somya Raghavan said that the numbers for this year had been distorted by the pay commission award which resulted in a Rs 55,000 crore outgo over two years.
The projected surplus for the next financial year is even lower than the surplus seen during 2008-09, when the financial crisis was at its peak.
