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Our
New Delhi Bureau
NEW DElHI 25 FEBRUARY
INITIAL,
reaction from economists to the Union railway budget for 1992-93
has been varied, with favourable reactions to the measures
to increase revenue receipt but criticism to the freight hike
on coal.
According
to Mr. A K Ghosh, former member of the Planning Commission,
the decision to hike the fares for the second class commuters
is going to hit the poor man most.
He
was of the opinion that the railway minister could have abolished to
leave travel concession facility to raise resources and spared the common
man. However, the move to raise the upper class railway fares, according
to him, was one which was bound to generate a sizeable revenue for the
ministry.
He
also hailed the decision to introduce 16 new rail services,
while arguing in favour of heavy investments in the railway
sector to build up better infrastructural facilities.
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The
fare hike for upper class passengers was also a good move,
Mr. Choudary said, adding that all these measures had in
any case been expected on the revenue side.
However, he stated, the expenditure side proposals were
also equally important and a careful study of this needed
to be made before commenting on the impact of this budget.
Prof
J D Agarwal, director of the Indian Institute of Finance said
that the railway budget was "pro-poor and a soft budget,"
particularly from the point of view of the common man but
it lacked financial rationality.
In
the present difficult state of the economy, the minister had
the option to raise more revenue by increasing freight tariff
and passenger fare by more than what was proposed by him,
he said.
The
president of the National Forum for Industrial Growth, Mr.
Narendra Kaltantri, left that the budget was pragmatic, incorporated
new economic trends, cost effective measures and reduced administrative
cost. |
