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The 92-year-old practice of presenting a separate Rail Budget is set to come to an end from the next fiscal, with the Finance Ministry accepting Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s proposal to merge it with the General Budget.
According to railways, the Finance Ministry has now constituted a five-member committee comprising senior officials of the Ministry and the national transporter to work out the modalities for the merger. The committee has been asked to submit its report by August 31.
“I had written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for merger of the Rail Budget with General Budget. This will be in the Railway’s interest and also in the nation’s interest. We are working out the modalities,” Prabhu told PTI.
The public sector behemoth has to bear an additional burden of about ₹40,000 crore on account of implementation of the 7th Pay Commission awards, besides an annual outgo of ₹32,000 crore on subsidies.
Besides, the delay in completion of projects resulted in cost overrun of ₹1.07 lakh crore and huge throw-forward of ₹1.86 lakh crore in respect of 442 ongoing rail projects.
If the merger happens, the Indian Railway will get rid of the annual dividend it has to pay for gross budgetary support from the government every year.
According to a senior Railway official, the move to discard the age-old practice of a separate Rail Budget is part of the Modi government’s reform agenda.
With the merger, the issue of raising passenger fares, an unpopular decision, will be the Finance Minister’s call.
Prabhu had also told the Rajya Sabha on August 9 that he has asked the Finance Minister to merge the Railway Budget with General Budget in the long-term interest of national transporter as well as the country’s economy.
The All-India Railwaymen’s Federation General Secretary Gopal Mishra said the Railway Ministry’s autonomy will be lost in the merger. “But we have to see in what form the merger will happen,” he said.
The merger move is significant as it is expected to have political implications.
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