The Hindu Business Line : Rlys set to haul 490 mt freight

THE economic slowdown notwithstanding, the Railways is set to haul around 490 million tonnes of revenue earning freight in the current fiscal. This is, however, 10 million tonnes short of the budget estimate of 500 million tonnes.

Addressing the Conference of General Managers, the Railway Minister Mr Nitish Kumar, today admitted that the earnings from freight and non-traditional sources would fall short of the budget target for the current fiscal.

The overall shortfall vis-a-vis the budget estimate stood at around Rs 770 crore up to the end of December 2001. The gap may be narrowed down, albeit marginally, with the improvement in loading in January, this year. The commodity wise loading up to December 2001 stood at 367.75 million tonnes, marking a 10 million tonne shortfall over the target up to December.

Advocating a high growth path for the Railways, Mr Nitish Kumar gave an indication that the Railways would refrain from a steep hike in passenger fares in 2002-03. "While freight rates cannot be raised, passenger tariffs cannot be increased beyond what commuters can afford to pay'', the Railway Minister said.

Mr Nitish Kumar did some tough talking with the board and the GMs, saying that the pace of implementation of crucial Cabinet decisions including the divestment of Railtel had been woefully slow. "Although we had factored in revenue earning of Rs 700 crore from Railtel, no money will be realised this year. I have not been given a convincing reply on the delay in firming up the premium on equity to be divested to telecom PSUs'', Mr Nitish Kumar said.

Similarly, a considerable shortfall is anticipated in revenue generation from commercial utilisation of railway land and commercial publicity. As against a target of Rs 200 crore for land utilisation, the realisation stood at around Rs 51.49 crore till the end of October and Rs 77.63 crore up to the end of December. Barely Rs 15.14 crore was realised from commercial publicity against the budgeted target of Rs 100 crore.

Passenger and other coaching earnings are estimated to surpass the budget marginally, despite the drop in earnings on Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains. Passenger earnings topped Rs 8,357.11 crore from April to December, which was roughly 8.4 per cent higher than the earnings in the corresponding period last year. The earnings amount to 75 per cent of the budget target.

Other coaching earnings stood at 663.99 crore up to December 2001, marking a near 17 per cent increase over earnings in the corresponding period last year.

A silver lining has been the expenditure compression, with a Rs 1,090 crore reduction in ordinary working expenses.

The fiscal would end with OWE at Rs 29,100 crore as compared to the budget estimate of Rs 30,190 crore.

The high electricity tariffs and mounting outstandings from SEBs have prompted the Railways to negotiate a joint venture with NTPC for the setting up of a power plant.

Recast package for Konkan

The Finance Ministry has appointed the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) to work out a separate financial restructuring package for Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC) to ease the Railway's burden of servicing bonds floated by KRC.

KRC has raised monies from the market through the issuance of tax free bonds offering a coupon rate of 10.5 per cent backed by a guarantee from the Indian Railways. The burden of servicing, in the event of any default, therefore falls on the Railways.

IDFC is expected to work out a package for swapping the high cost debt with cheaper loans to reduce the servicing burden on the Indian Railways. The corporation has been hampered by the fact that it has incorporated a call option in its bonds only to the extent of Rs.400 crore over the next two years. This reduces the flexibility for it to restructure the debt.

The Railways had to fork out around Rs 744 crore in the current fiscal towards KRC as against the budgetary allocation of Rs 230 crore. The burden for the next fiscal is estimated to be of the order of Rs 550 crore, according to Mr Nitish Kumar.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Public views sought on AAI, port trust Bills

Rlys set to haul 490 mt freight

`Railneer' to quench commuters' thirst

Gamuda (India) set to bag Durgapur NH project