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Railway Budget 2013-14



The Railway Budget 2013-14 has focused on fiscal discipline with no major capex related increases. Passenger fares have not been hiked in the budget as increase in this segment has been effected just recently (in January 2013), which is to garner `6,600cr for the railways in FY2014. Freight tariffs have been effectively hiked in the Budget by about 5.0% to adjust for the rise in fuel cost. The fuel bill is estimated to increase by `5,100cr in FY2014 due to upward revision in HSD oil prices and electricity tariffs. The Railway Minister has proposed to segregate the fuel component in tariffs such that the fuel adjustment component (FAC) adjusts to changes in fuel costs, and has proposed to implement this revision in freight tariff from April 1, 2013. Since the FAC is applicable only on freight rates and no additional hike in passenger fares has been proposed, the railways would absorb the impact of the expected burden of `850cr, on this account. Moreover, the railways have proposed increase in supplementary charges for super fast trains, reservation fees, clerkage charges, cancellation charges and tatkal charges. However the enhanced reservation fee has been abolished to simplify the fee structure. Key targets and achievements Losses on passenger train operations increased to `24,600cr as compared to `22,500 in the previous year. The target of 700km of new lines in FY2013 has been scaled down drastically to 470km owing to inadequate resources. In FY2014 the railways is targeting 500km of new lines. This is lower than the 709km and 727km of new lines in FY2011 and FY2012 respectively. As far as the dedicated freight corridor is concerned, land acquisition for about2,800km of the eastern and western freight corridors is almost complete and 343kmsection of the eastern corridor has already been awarded. The railways expectsconstruction on the two corridors to start and cover upto 1,500km by the end of 2013-14. Through partnership projects with ports, large mines, industry etc, the railways expects an investment of `9,000cr, including `3,800cr for port connectivity projects, `4,000cr for coal mine connectivity and `800cr for iron ore mines connectivity improvements. Source: Angel Broking

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