NITI Aayog Member Bibek Debroy said critics of the Railway Budget are taking a “myopic” view that it has not announced any new trains or fare increases.“There are two ways to look at the Budget. The first is to look at the numbers in 2015-16 and how the projections went wrong, thereby, adding credibility to the projections for 2016-17. Of course, the numbers are bad,” he said in his blog on the NITI Aayog website. The projections could change if tariff rates are changed or structural reforms are addressed by the Railways, he said.
Debroy, who had earlier also led a committee on restructuring the Railways, argued that an improvement in the economy may not necessarily result in higher revenue for the Railways.