Railway Budget speech 2008-09: Full text

ON TRACK: Lalu Prasad presents Railway Budget 2008-09.

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Keywords: Full Text, Rail Budget

Speaker Sir, I present the Railway Budget for the year 2008-09 with a sense of deep pride and satisfaction. Each year we have progressively raised the bar based on our own successes. The cash surplus of the Railways rose steadily from Rs 9000 cr in 2005 to Rs 14000 cr in 2006 to Rs 20000 cr in 2007. The august House would be happy to know that in 2007-08, we will create history once again by turning in a cash surplus before Dividend of Rs. 25000 cr.

Our operating ratio has also improved to 76%. Indian Railways is a Government Department. However, we take pride in the fact that our achievement, on the benchmark of net surplus before Dividend, makes us better than most of the Fortune 500 companies in the world. We are taking the Indian Railways to unprecedented heights. On this path of progress, 14 lakh rail employees have worked shoulder to shoulder with the passenger as a guiding beacon to write a story of success in which several billions have been earned despite reduction in fares. It is for this reason that Indian Railways has received acclaim world over as a unique mega enterprise. This success is the result of out of the box thinking and a passion to follow the road less traveled.

Sab kah rahe hain humne gazab kaam kiya hai, Karoron ka munafa har ek shaam diya hai, Phal salon yeh ab dega, paudha jo lagaya hai, Sewa ka, samarpan ka, har farz nibhaya hai.

Many are surprised by the successive landmarks set by the Indian Railways. While the common man is happy to see this picture of 2 development, there are some people who still view this success with suspicion. I would only like to state that our achievements are like an open book. In the last four years, we have turned in a cumulative cash surplus before dividend of Rs. 68,778 cr. Out of this Rs. 15,898 cr has been paid as dividend, Rs. 39,215 cr has been invested in rail infrastructure and Rs. 13,665 cr has been added to fund balances to reach Rs 20,483 cr.

Sir, the dire straits the Railways were in prior to the UPA Government is not hidden from anybody. The Railways were battling a deep financial crisis in which they defaulted on the dividend payable to Government of India and were not in a position to undertake timely replacement of overage assets. Today, after the financial turnaround of the organization, the same people are making tall claims, trying to take credit for the financial turnaround. Ujra chaman jo chhod gaye thay, humarey dost, Ab baat kar rahe hain, wo fuslay bahaar ki.

We have not only offered dreams but have also made them a reality. Even as we improved the railways financial performance, we have offered the masses the nations most economical, efficient and profitable transport system. There is no great mystery behind the strategy of this turnaround. It is common knowledge that the marginal cost in a capital-intensive business like Railways is substantially less than the average cost of operations. It is for this reason that we followed a strategy of playing on volumes, driving down unit cost, reducing tariffs and increasing market share to achieve record profits. The focus is on increasing yield per train rather than increasing tariff per passenger or per ton.

Just as ever falling call charges have brought mobile phones within the reach of crores of people, for the first time lakhs of poor people have enjoyed the comfort of air-conditioned travel in Garib Rath by paying a little more than non AC sleeper fares.

In the last 4 years, we have achieved incremental loading of 233 MT and have added Rs 14000 cr of freight earnings by reducing the wagon turnaround time and increasing payload. Instead of making across the board increases in tariff we undertook rationalization of the freight tariff. While on the one hand we reduced freight tariff for petrol and diesel, on the other we increased the tariff for iron ore for exports.

We earned an additional Rs. 2000 cr by giving lean season discounts and levying peak season surcharge. 7. Instead of increasing passenger fares, we concentrated on increasing the length of passenger trains. During 2004-05 to 2007-08, we added 3000 additional coaches thereby earning an additional Rs. 2000 cr.