Railway Board officials brief Par panel on budget merger

Railway Board officials today briefed a Parliamentary panel on the implications of the government's decision to merge the railway budget with the general budget.
Railway Board Chairman A K Mittal explained various issues related with the merger to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, sources said.
Representatives of Railway Board briefed the committee, headed by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, about the government's budgetary reforms, including "merger of railway budget with general budget and the ramifications thereof", they said.
The Cabinet last month approved the Finance Ministry's proposal on landmark budgetary reforms relating to merger of railway budget with the general budget and the advancement of the date of presentation from the last working day of February.

As per practice, the general budget is presented in the Lok Sabha on the last working day of February.
The Cabinet has also given its permission to the merger of Plan and Non-Plan classification in the Budget and Accounts.
The presentation of separate railway budget started in 1924, and has continued after independence as a convention rather than under Constitutional provisions.
Earlier, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that railways will maintain its separate identity and functional autonomy even after merger of its budget with the general budget.