NEW DELHI: The 92-year-old tradition of a separate Rail Budget is likely to become a thing of the past with a committee to finalise the modalities for its merger with the General Budget submitting its report to the Finance Ministry.
The report on merger of Rail Budget and General Budget which was to be submitted by August 31, was delayed due to some “unavoidable reasons” and it was submitted to the Finance Ministry on September 8, sources in the railways said.
The Government had constituted a 5-member committee comprising senior officials of the ministries of Finance and Railways to work out the modalities for the merger.
Though the sources declined to divulge the committee’s recommendations on the ground that the “report is now in the Finance Ministry’s domain”, it is believed that a detailed framework for a way forward has been worked out for merger of two budgets.
The panel is understood to have advocated that the General Budget should have a separate annexure for the rail budget detailing the grant, expenditure and new projects for the next fiscal.
Since the railways has already given its consent for the merger, it is now for the Finance Ministry to take a call on the issue, they said. (AGENCIES)
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