The Hindu Business Line : Budget lacks commercial orientation: India Inc

THE Railway Budget has evoked mixed response from captains of the Indian industry. While welcoming the proposals for maintaining the operating expenses, providing greater safety to passengers, initiating drives for cleanliness and introducing more passenger amenities, a section of India Inc felt that the Budget "lacked commercial orientation."

Noting that the Railway Budget failed to rise above the short term and populist focus, Mr Ravi Wig, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), said: "Given the fact that Railways is the only high capacity transport mode that can meet the long-term needs of our economy, today's Budget has not done much to rise above the short-term focus in announcing new initiatives."

Mr Wig said that the proposals lacked commercial orientation and did not include measures to improve the financial health of the Indian Railways.

The Budget did not talk about setting up of an independent regulator - Rail Tariff Regulatory Authority - to fix up rational railway fares both for passengers and freight. He, however, welcomed the announcement of the 10 per cent rebate for movement of heavy machinery, including cars, and no further increase in freight rates.

Mr Y.K. Modi, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), while hailing the proposals, urged that the cross-subsidisation in the railway system should be made transparent and a review should be made to identify the loss-making operations and control cost in these areas. "Only then, the Railways should be in a position to take up a time-bound programme to eliminate loss-making operations over a fixed timeframe. If there has to be any subsidisation of railways operations for the weaker section, this should be transparent," he said.

Mr Modi has welcomed the Railway Budget's emphasis on IT and application of IT tools for improvement of railways' functioning. FICCI particularly lauded the Railway Minister for introduction of more refrigerated capacities.

The President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Mr Mahendra K. Sanghi, pointed out that the Minister had not illustrated as to how his Ministry intended to generate resources to support the railways' proposed drive for adequate safety measures and undertake its modernisation and upgradation programme.

Mr Sanghi, however, felt that since concrete steps for generating additional resources for the Railways are not mentioned in the Budget proposals, the Ministry's dependence on higher budgetary allocation would further enlarge.

Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said that the number of measures that Railway Budget missed were structural reforms, introduction of high speed and scheduled freight trains which was the need of the hour. Similarly, no attempt had been made by the Minister to leverage idle assets for commercial exploitation, he said.

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