Highlights of the Railway and Union Budget 2014-15
Railway Budget:
Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda on 8 July 2014 presented the
Railway Budget 2014-15 in the Parliament. In the budget he announced
introduction of several trains on different routes pan India. Apart from
this, the budget also saw certain new initiatives for Railways.
Highlights of the Railway Budget
- No new increase in passenger fares and freight charges
- Setting up of Project Management Groups consisting of professionals and State Government Officials at Railway Board and Zonal level for coordinating and expediting project management with respective State Governments
- Expenditure in 2014-15 pegged at Rs. 149,176 crore.
- Launching online registration of demands for wagons in next two months for facilitating online payment of Wagon registration fee
- Bullet train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector
- Food Courts at major stations to provide the option of ordering regional cuisine while onboard, through emails, SMS and Smart Phones, etc. A pilot project will be started shortly between New Delhi-Amritsar and New Delhi-Jammu Tawi sections
- CCTVs at Stations will be extended to monitor cleanliness activities
- Bio-toilets will be increased in sufficient numbers in trains in order to mitigate the problem of direct discharge of human waste on the tracks and platform aprons at stations
- Online booking facility of Railway Retiring Room will be extended to all the stations during the course of the year
- Women RPF Constables to escort ladies coaches; 4,000 women constables to be inducted
- Railways university for technical and non-technical subjects
- Providing education to children of Railway staff at remote locations through Railtel OFC (optical fibre cable) network
- Wi-fi Services in A1 and A category stations and in select trains
- Mobile based Wakeup Call System for passengers
- E-ticketing to support 7200 tickets per minutes to allow 120000 simultaneous users
- Harnessing solar energy by utilizing roof top spaces of stations, railway buildings and land including through PPP mode
- Increasing bio-toilets in sufficient numbers in trains to mitigate the problem of direct discharge of human waste on the tracks and platforms
- 58 new trains and extension of 11; 864 additional EMUs to be introduced in Mumbai over 2 years.
Alternate resource mobilization need to be explored as enlisted
- Leveraging Railway PSU Resources by bringing in their investible surplus funds in infrastructure projects of Railways
- Domestic investments and FDI in rail infrastructure
- Pursuing Public Private Partnership
Union Budget 2014
Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley on 10 July 2014 presented Union
Budget 2014-15. In his maiden budget, the Union Finance Minister
announced certain major plans for Defence and Internal Security. The Union Budget introduced many new initiatives like Financial
Inclusion Mission, Debt Recovery Tribunals to improve the economic
system in India and also introduced National Savings Certificate, a new
insurance cover to provide additional benefits for the small saver.
Highlights of the Union Budget:
- The budget allocated further sum of 1000 crore rupees to meet requirement for One Rank One Pension‰ Capital outlay for Defence increased by 5000 crore including a sum of 1000 crore for accelerating the development of the Railway system in the border areas.‰
- Urgent steps would also be taken to streamline the procurement process to make it speedy and more efficient
- 100 crore rupees is provided for construction of a war memorial in the Princes Park, which will be supplemented by a War Museum
- 100 crore rupees has been allocated to set up a Technology Development Fund for Defence
- 3000 crore rupees allocated in the current financial year for modernization of state police forces
- 2250 crore rupees provided to strengthen and modernize border infrastructure
- 990 crore rupees allocated for the socio economic development of the villages along the borders
- Time bound programme as Financial Inclusion Mission to be launched on 15 August 2014 with focus on the weaker sections of the society.‰
- Banks to be permitted to raise long term funds for lending to infrastructure sector with minimum regulatory pre-emption such as CRR, SLR and Priority Sector Lending (PSL).
- Differentiated banks serving niche interests, local area banks, payment banks etc. are contemplated to meet credit and remittance needs of small businesses, unorganized sector, low income households, farmers and migrant work force
- The regulatory gap under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banking) Act, 1978 will be bridged.
- In the Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme, annual ceiling will be enhanced to 1.5 lakh rupees per annum from 1 lakh rupees at present.
- Start Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme ‰for encouraging rural youth to take up local entrepreneurship programs with an outlay of 100 crore rupees to be launched
- Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojna for the welfare of the tribals with an outlay of 100 crore rupees
- Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) to be revived for a limited period from 15 August, 2014 to 14 August 2015 for the benefit of citizens aged 60 years and above
- Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana a focused scheme to generate awareness and help in improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for women with an outlay of 100 crore rupees
- Swach Bharat Abhiyan to cover every household with sanitation facility by the year 2019
- AIIMS like institutions in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Poorvanchal in Uttar Pradesh with an outlay of 500 crores rupees
- 5 Indian Institute of Technology to be set up in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala with an outlay of 500 crore rupees
- Film & Television Institute, Pune and Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata are proposed to be accorded status of Institutes of national importance
- Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana to be opened with an outlay of 200 crore rupees
- 100 crore rupees provided to set up a National Centre for Himalayan Studies in Uttarakhand
- 500 crore rupees provided to support displaced Kashmiri migrants for rebuilding their lives
- Global partnerships will be developed under India’s leadership to transform the Delhi component of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) into a world-leader in life sciences and biotechnology
- 200 crore rupees has been provided for upgrading the indoor and outdoor sports stadiums in Jammu and Kashmir Valley to international standards
- 100 crore rupees has been provided for the training of sports women and men for forthcoming Asian games
- Capital outlay for Defence increased by 5000 crore including a sum of 1000 crore for accelerating the development of the Railway system in the border areas.‰
- 3000 crore rupees allocated in the current financial year for modernization of state police forces
- 2250 crore rupees provided to strengthen and modernize border infrastructure
- 50 crore rupees ear-marked for the construction of Marine Police Station, Jetties and for the purchase of boats and others
- 50 crore rupees has been provided for construction of National Police Memorial
- 200 crore provided to open Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana.
- 100 crore rupees has been provided for this purpose and additional 56 crores rupees to set up 100 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories across the country.
- To mitigate the risk of Price volatility in the agriculture produce, a sum of 500 crore rupees is provided for establishing a Price Stabilization Fund.
- Central Government to work closely with the State Governments to re-orient their respective Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts.
- Corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) raised by an additional 5000 crore rupee from the target given in the Interim Budget to 25000 crores rupees
- Long Term Rural Credit Fund to set up for the purpose of providing refinance support to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks with an initial corpus of 5000 crore rupees.‰
- Restructuring FCI, reducing transportation and distribution losses and efficacy of PDS to be taken up on priority.
- Government when required will undertake open market sales to keep prices under control.
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