The Hindu : Front Page : Fares, freight spared, a slew of concessions too

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 27, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Fares, freight spared, a slew of concessions too

By P.K. Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI, FEB. 26. In what is seen as yet another populist budget, the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, today left untouched the passenger fares for all classes. Nor did he touch the freight rates and parcel tariffs, and still managed to shower concessions on unemployed, rural students, farmers and milk producers.

But Mr. Yadav has tinkered with the classification of goods for freights, placing them in higher or lower category to mop up an additional Rs. 650 crores.

The movement of non-PDS and non-poverty scheme food grains and pulses would attract higher freight charges, a step some fear could have a cascading effect on prices.

Unfazed by noisy scenes and a walkout by National Democratic Alliance members over the issue of `charge sheeted Ministers,' Mr. Prasad announced 46 new trains and extended the runs of several.

Presenting his second budget in eight months to Parliament, he said the freight rate on kerosene and LPG would get reduced by 3.7 and 2.7 per cent respectively. He, however, claimed that re-categorisation of goods would not affect commodities used by the common man.

Phone enquiry

Referring to passenger amenities, the Minister said an attempt had been made to expand the reach of telephone lines pertaining to railway enquiry throughout the country by accessing a common phone number 139 at local call rates so that rural people too are benefited.

The facility of booking tickets through the Internet, which was started for cell phones for the current year, will soon be available on landline phones also between 4 a.m. and 11.30 p.m. from March 15.

To end the suspense for waitlisted passengers, the railways have proposed continuous updating of the waiting list and display of vacancy position charts in all reserved coaches and platforms.

The Railway Minister proposed free travel to unemployed youth for appearing in interviews for State Government jobs on the lines of similar concession granted last time for Central Government job interviews.

The fare concessions announced by the Railway Minister in his Ministry's surplus budget for 2005-06 included 50 per cent reduced fares for farmers and milk producers to travel to national institutes for training and to rural girl students to appear in national level entrance examinations for professional courses in colleges.

A 75 per cent concession in second-class fares has been proposed for rural government school students, once a year, for study tour.

The railways will also carry relief free to areas affected by natural calamities and disasters on a priority basis. Affected persons will be provided free second-class transportation.

Bodies of those who die after undergoing treatment in major Government hospitals will be carried on a priority basis to their hometown at 50 percent of normal tariff rates.

In his 105-minute speech, Mr. Prasad pegged the annual plan of the railways for 2005-06 at Rs.11,827 crores with a budgetary support of Rs. 4,718 crores for Plan expenditure.

Taking into account the outlay of Rs. 3,522 crores on safety-related works, the total outlay comes to Rs. 15,349 crores, an increase of Rs. 851 crores over the last year's outlay.

The budget estimated Gross Traffic Receipts (GTR) at Rs. 50,968 crores, Rs. 4,183 crores higher than the Revised Estimates in the current fiscal year. The GTRs in the current year are anticipated to increase by Rs. 1,883 crores over the Budget Estimates.

The working expenses are expected to go up by only Rs. 400 crores, resulting in a significant increase in the internal generation during the current fiscal.

The fund balances are expected to close with a healthy figure of Rs. 6,963 crores despite withdrawals in the current year being higher compared to previous years, Mr. Prasad said.

There is no across-the-board increase in freight rates and no increase in parcel tariff, the Minister said as he announced rationalisation of tariff, proposing merger of various classes of commodities to bring the number of categories down from 4,000 to 80.

Its impact would be that freight of many goods might go up and come down in some cases.

Apart from 46 new trains, more than one-third of them connecting the South, extension of the run of 28 trains and increasing the frequency of 10 popular trains, the Railways also proposed to undertake surveys of 31 new lines and expedite gauge conversion of some of the lines.

The Minister also said that the Railways witnessed a growth of 7.2 per cent in passenger traffic in the current fiscal and surpassed the freight traffic targets.

The Railways has also for the first time decided to get the actuarial assessment of pension liability done through a professional agency in view of huge outflow.