Rail Budget 2016: Earnings fall short of target by Rs 15k cr

Railways' revenue from passenger fares as well as freight rates is expected to fall short of the Budget target by Rs 15,744 crore in the current fiscal.

While it had budgeted to earn over Rs 1.83 lakh crore in 2015-16, as per the revised estimates it is going to earn about Rs 1.67 lakh crore.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu attributed the shortfall to tepid economic growth due to global slowdown.

"Historically declining model share of Indian Railways, which dropped from 62 per cent in 1980 to 36 per cent in 2012, is continuing to exert pressure on the institution," Prabhu said presenting the Rail Budget for 2016-17.

Indian Railways has budgeted to earn from fares and freight Rs 1.84 lakh crore, which is about 10 per cent increase over the revised estimated for the current fiscal, ending on March 31.

For 2015-16, earnings from passengers fares are expected to be Rs 45,376 crore, as against the budgeted Rs 50,175 crore. Hence a shortfall of Rs 4,798 crore.

As regards earnings from goods, the figure in revised estimates came down to over Rs 1.11 lakh crore, from budgeted over Rs 1.21 lakh crore. The shortfall is Rs 9,570 crore.

Shortfall from other earnings in the current fiscal is put at about Rs 1,300 crore.

For the next year with an optimistic outlook for the economy, Prabhu said "we hope to generate revenues of the order of Rs 1.84 lakh crore, 10.1 per cent higher than the revised target for the current year".