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A people's Budget: Mamata

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Feb. 25

THE Railway Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, lived up to her image of championing the cause of the poor by presenting what she called a Budget ``for the people, by the people and of the people''.

What do you think has been the thrust of your Budget?

The thrust is to enhance the Railways' lost market share by 1 per cent every year over the next decade. The new freight policy, which focuses on recovering non-bulk high-value traffic, offering the leasing route to freight forwarders in luggage vans and on popular mail and express trains is definitely innovative. Our idea is to reverse the declining trend in falling market share.

Would not the Railways move to defer dividend liability adversely impact the borrowing programme of the Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC)?

The Railways has all along been a good paymaster to the exchequer. The deferment has been done after an understanding was arrived at between the Railways and the Finance Ministry. The dividend liability had to be deferred due to the shortfall in internal resource generation since the Finance Ministry could not provide an extra Rs. 2,000 crores sought by us.

Besides, I am confident of generating additional resources internally this time around through non-traditional means of finance. I have also not factored in the amount that is proposed to be given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan which is still b eing negotiated.

You have bypassed the issue of addressing the problem of freight rates cross-subsidising passenger fares, ignoring the concerns expressed in the Status Paper tabled in Parliament.

My Budget is for the people, of the people and by the people. Unless we provide better quality of passenger services, it does not seem fair to charge them extra. On passenger amenities, I have actually proposed an enhanced outlay of 54 per cent compared to last year.

Do you anticipate higher revenues from non-traditional sources of finance?

We have made a conservative estimate (of Rs. 500 crores) on revenues through leasing the Railways' ``right of way'' for optical fibre cables (OFC). So is the case for revenues of Rs. 150 crores from commercial exploitation of land and Rs. 100 crores from commercial publicity on railway premises.

Negotiations are already on with private parties on leasing the ``right of way'' and we'll come to a decision soon. Besides, we can get around Rs. 1,000 crores through commercial exploitation of land, but I am taking credit only for Rs. 150 crores. I thi nk we'll end the year with higher revenues from all these sources.

Will the 5 per cent freight hike not have a cascading effect on commodity prices?

While all essential commodities and urea have been spared of the freight hike, the increase is modest for core goods such as steel, cement and coal. Considering that our goods earning is around Rs. 23,608 crores, the additional mobilisation of Rs. 600 cr ores through freight hike is tantamount to only a 2-3 per cent increase. And remember, we have not raised freight rates after the 40 per cent diesel price hike last year.

You have expressed concern over the high traction tariffs charged by various State Electricity Boards and hinted at setting up joint ventures. Will such entities be in power generation?

The SEBs have not been responding favourably, despite my taking up the issue time and again. It has hence been decided that the Indian Railways will look at some form of entities through joint ventures with private or public companies such as NTPC which would take up generation of power or even take up the task of negotiating tariffs on behalf of the Railways.