For 92 years, till the Union Budget 2017-18, the Railways, so vital a sector, would have a separate budget. On Tuesday, in the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech, the Railways did not find a single mention. But that does not belie the criticality of the fact that India moves on the rails.
What it also means is that the allocation to the Railways stands unchanged from the interim budget before the Loka Sabha elections that was presented on February 1, 2024.
Nevertheless, the Union budget document shows some increase in allocations meant for the Railways, like Rs 34,603 crore in 2024-25 from Rs 31.850 in 2023-24 or in gauge conversion from Rs 4,600 crore for 2024-25 to Rs 4,720 last year. Customer amenities, too, got a budgetary hike from Rs 13,355 crore last year to Rs 15,511 crore this year.
But what could offer solace to the sector is the Economic Survey’s appraisal that the capital expenditure on Railways has increased by 77 per cent over the past five years.
On shipping and its vast tourist potential, the minister said ownership, leasing and flagging reforms will be implemented to increase the share of the Indian shipping industry and generate more employment.
“To give a fillip to this employment generating industry, I am proposing a simpler tax regime for foreign shipping companies operating domestic cruises in the country,” she said.
The budget also proposed a new taxation regime for cruise-ships business by non-residents with a tax exemption for lease rentals, if the foreign company and the non-resident cruise ship operator have the same holding company.
The minister in her budget speech offered a key incentive to the shipping and aviation sector by extending the period for export of goods imported for repairs from six months to one year.
“To promote domestic aviation and boat and ship MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul), I propose to extend the period for export of goods imported for repairs from six months to one year. In the same vein, I propose to extend the time limit for re-import of goods for repairs under warranty from three to five years,” she said.
On Monday, the Economic Survey had reported: “The aviation industry in India is on the cusp of unprecedented growth, with a strong order book of more than 1,500 aircraft placed by Indian airlines and a projected demand for over 2,200 aircraft by 2042.”
Roads, another critical infrastructure component, had the same story with the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) remaining unchanged from the interim Budget. It had a 3 per cent hike in allocation at Rs 2.78 lakh crore from Rs 2.7 lakh crore in the last year.
Out the Rs 2.78 lakh crore, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was allocated Rs 1.68 lakh crore as part of MoRTH’s capital expenditure plan for 2024-25.
Adverse weather conditions and state legislature elections had also negatively impacted the target of building 13,800 km of highways in 2023-24 with the ministry being able to construct only about 12,350 km of national highways.
But easily, with the stress on infrastructure, the speedy expansion of highways has been an outstanding hallmark of the current government when compared with the previous dispensations which was more focused on rural roads.
The Union budget on Tuesday announced a Rs 26,000 crore support for the development of road connectivity projects including the Patna-Purnea expressway, Buxar-Bhagalpur highway, Bodhgaya-Rajgir-Vaishali- Darbhanga and an additional two-lane bridge over river Ganga in Buxar.
The finance minister said: “On the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor we will support the development of an industrial nod at Gaya in Bihar. It will catalyse the development of the eastern region.”
