Railway Budget to Merge With General Budget From 2017

The railway budget will be merged with the general budget starting next year.

Union Railway Minister Surehs Prabhu. (Photo: The Quint)

Putting an end to a practice of over 90 years, the finance ministry has agreed to the proposal of merging the annual railway budget with the general budget, the Times of India reported, citing sources.

The ministry has reportedly put together a five-member committee of officers to iron out the workings of the exercise.

Since the advent of coalition governments after 1996, political players have doled out “favours and goodies” under the pretext of the railway budget to gain political mileage.

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The budget began in the year 1924. With the portfolio usually given to regional heavyweights, the railway budget often reflected where the political priorities of the ruling government lay.

The move to discard the British-era practice has come after a two-member committee comprised of Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy and Kishore Desai recommended that the exercise be scrapped.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had asked the Finance Minister in the Rajya Sabha to end the 92-year-old practice, although the timeline was not specified.

The railway budget may now come under the ambit of the Finance Ministry and provide money to the railway department, like all the other administration department.

(Source: The Times of India)