India Inc divided over Rail Budget

Corporate India seems to be divided over the Railway Budget proposals. While a section of India Inc (mainly Ficci and CII) cheered Nitish Ku...

Corporate India seems to be divided over the Railway Budget proposals. While a section of India Inc (mainly Ficci and CII) cheered Nitish Kumar’s Budget saying that steps like freight rates rationalisation, tariff reclassification and reduced ‘to pay’ surcharge would improve traffic volume, freight earnings and increase price efficiency of railways, other chambers termed it as a ‘missed opportunity’ and a ‘lacklustre’ one.

Stating that it was an attempt to make the Railways market-oriented, Ficci president A.C. Muthiah said “the heartening feature of the railway budget is the new philosophy of going to the market.”

However, Assocham in a statement pointed out that the budget proposals as ‘populist’ one and a ‘missed opportunity’ for improving rail finances by removing the cross subsidisation on account of high freight rates and low passenger fares.

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Terming the Railway Budget as ‘lacklustre’, the Indian Merchants’ Chamber said the Union government has missed yet another opportunity to upgrade the Railways for enabling it to face the increasing competition from roadways.

CII president Ashok Soota described it as a rational and balanced Budget. ‘The Minister has taken a number of positive and visionary steps particularly focussing on safety and rationalisation of freight structure, reclassification of categories and introduction of new trains,’ a CII statement said.

However, Assocham president R.K. Somany said classification of freight categories, focus on customer service, safety and introduction of new trains were positive steps.