Financing Plan expenditure a challenge
GBS for 2013-14 is expected to increase by a mere 8.33%
 "Financing Plan expenditure a challenge")
Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Tuesday acknowledged that financing the railways' Plan expenditure in the coming years would be difficult, as just 9.5 per cent of internal resources pegged for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) had been raised in the first year.
"Of the estimated Rs 1.05 lakh crore internal resource generation spread over the five years, the railways could generate only Rs 10,000 crore in the first year of the Plan (2012-13)," Bansal informed while presenting his maiden budget in Parliament.
This means Rs 95,000 crore or 90.5 per cent of internal resources pegged in the 12th Plan has to be raised in the next four years. This also means the railways would have to generate Rs 23,000 crore a year on an average in the next four years from its internal resources, most of which comes from passenger and freight rates.
"The internal resource target, which is 1.6 times that of the 12th Plan, also appears a tall order, as we could generate only Rs 10,000 crore in the first year of the 12th Plan. The railways would be faced with a stiffer challenge of enhancing investment during the remaining three years of the 12th Plan," the minister said.
Bansal's problems have been compounded by the low gross budgetary support (GBS) his department received in 2013-14. The railway budget showed that GBS in 2013-14 is expected to increase by a mere 8.33 per cent to Rs 26,000 crore, as against Rs 24,000 crore pegged in 2012-13.
It means to meet the 12th Plan target of GBS -" Rs 1,44,000 crore -" the government support to railways should double to around Rs 48,000 crore a year on an average in the last three years of the plan.
Bansal pegged total Plan size for 2013-14 at Rs 63,363 crore, just 5.4 per cent more than the 2011-12 budget estimate of Rs 60,100 crore. But, from the revised estimate of Rs 52,265 crore for 2012-13, the annual plan outlay for 2013-14 is 21.2 per cent higher.
In 2013-14, Bansal believes Indian Railways will manage to mobilise a whopping 471 per cent more from PPP for the national carrier at Rs 6,000 crore than it did in 2012-13. In 2012-13, the resource generation through PPP mode was pegged at around Rs 1,050 crore. In the whole of the 12th Plan, the railways is expected to generate around a whopping Rs 1,00,000 crore through the PPP mode.
"The thrust of the 12th Five -Year plan is on doubling of tracks, passenger safety and staff welfare for which I have increased the outlay from about Rs 11,410 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 13,220 crore, an increase of 16 per cent," Bansal said.
He said the Indian Railways planned to have a reasonable balance of Rs 30,000 crore by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2016-17) after meeting the internal resource target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for plan expenditure.