Rail Budget 2013: Promises better Railways, but no hike in passenger fares

Mangaloretoday/NDTV

New Delhi, Feb 26, 2013: Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has not raised passenger fares in his Rail Budget, despite emphasising on the big losses the Railways is making, pegged at Rs. 24,500 crore for this year.  

He has, however, proposed to raise a fuel surcharge of just under 5 per cent on railway freight traffic and has also proposed an increase in supplementary charges for superfast trains, like Rajdhani and Shatabdi, and charges on reservations and cancellations. Passenger fares were raised by 21 per cent last month, but much part of the expected additional revenue of about Rs. 6,000 crore was wiped out by the increase in the price of diesel, which sent the fuel bill of the Railways soaring. 

 

 
As Mr Bansal finished his speech, the BSE Sensex was trading almost 225 points down and the Nifty was at a three-month low.
 
Mr Bansal’s maiden Budget left India Inc. disappointed.

"We expected the Budget to be more constructive, but I think the minister was under restrictions... there is no major impetus to growth," Ashok Vijay, chief financial officer at Texmaco, the largest wagon maker in the country, said.
 
The increase in freight rates will hit the cement industry, which is already battling a difficult pricing environment.
 
"The hike in freight rates should have an impact of Rs. 2 per bag. Although not substantial, it casts a gloom because prices are already under pressure," Sanjay Ladiwala, chairman of Cement Stockists & Dealers Association of Bombay, said.
 
The minister began presenting his first Rail Budget with a thank you to his political mentors, some poetry and flat statistics to say that unless the Railways cuts losses and begins to make money, it cannot provide best value to customers and play its part in the nation’s growth effectively. 
 
His task at hand, he said, was to raise Rs. 95,000 crore in the next four years of the 12th Five-Year Plan, which called for setting higher targets for expanding the rail network.

"Indian Railways must remain financially sustainable. The number of passenger trains has increased from 8,000 in 2001 to over 12,000 in 2012, yet losses continue to mount. They are estimated to be Rs. 24,000 crore in 2012-13," Mr Bansal said, adding that scarcity of resources and a thin spread of funds continued to be a problem.
 
Having said that, the minister pledged his commitment to passenger safety and promised to "work towards a zero accident situation". A resource crunch he said could not be an excuse for substandard services, the minister said, and promised to improve passenger amenities with a sweetly timed verse in Hindi to emphasise that he was attempting not to make noise but to bring change.
 
Mr Bansal announced a revamp of the e-ticketing system by the end of this year, free Wi-Fi on some trains and allowing train bookings on mobile phones.
 
Stressing on safety for women, a matter of public debate in the last few months, Mr Bansal acceded to a demand made even by his wife, Madhu Bansal, for a security helpline for women in distress to call.
 
He has also announced 26 new trains.