India to merge rail budget with union budget - govt source

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The cabinet on Wednesday approved the merger of the railway budget with the annual budget, a government source said, ending almost a century-long practice.

India's use of a railway budget separate from the national one is a relic of its colonial past, when the network was the country's major industrial asset and a major revenue earner.

Separately, the cabinet has given its approval to merge the plan and non-plan expenditure distinctions in the annual budget, Steel Minister Birender Singh told reporters.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Malini Menon)