The Union Budget for 2017 is likely to be presented on February 1. An approval for merging the Railway Budget with the General Budget was accorded by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday.
The party's national general secretary, Mukul Roy, said, "This government has no moral or ethical right to place a railway budget."
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced new initiatives.
Divestment has emerged as a priority for the government following a moderation in direct tax collections.
Dinesh Trivedi's experience as a businessperson and his fluency in Bengali are expected to be crucial in strengthening India-Bangladesh relations, particularly in attracting Indian investments to Dhaka.
General Budget is a terminology earlier used to differentiate between the Union Budget with the Railway Budget. Full-fledged budgets are titled "Union Budget", while interim Budgets are titled just that.
Employees of Mumbai's BEST undertaking have launched an indefinite strike, severely impacting public transport and electricity services. The strike, called by a joint action committee, demands budget merger with BMC, settlement of dues, and implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission, among other issues. Despite court orders and MESMA invocation, the strike continues, causing widespread inconvenience to millions of commuters and electricity consumers.
Railway Board Chairman JP Batra, Railway Board Financial Commissioner R Sivadasan and Officer on Special Duty Sudhir Kumar burn midnight oil and help in giving shape to Lalu's vision.
The time is opportune for doing away with the practice of a separate rail budget, and for replacing the railway ministry with an umbrella ministry of transport.
For 2017-18, the plan size has been pegged by the Railways at Rs 1,31,000 crore.
Currently, Railways is facing a loss of Rs 34,000 cr in passenger segment and its earnings are falling.
Experts say Indian Railways must grow its share in the freight market to remain financially sustainable.
India's privatisation push, once projected as a cornerstone of economic reform, has suffered another setback, with the Centre set to call off the IDBI Bank stake sale, highlighting the political and structural constraints shaping the country's disinvestment policy, experts say.
'For those in for the long haul, this is a God-given opportunity.' 'Your market is falling despite strong fundamentals, and such a clear roadmap has been announced.'
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said the Budget 2025-26 maintained the government's continuous push to improve Railways by allocating Rs 2.52 lakh crore to it and approving projects such as manufacturing 17,500 general coaches, 200 Vande Bharat and 100 Amrit Bharat trains, among others.
This is the second-worst performance by the pack during this period over the last five years since CY20.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a final call on whether to break the tradition of presenting a separate Rail Budget, by merging it with the General Budget.
The ministries of Road Transport & Highways and Railways have exceeded the national average capital expenditure (capex) by spending 63 per cent and 57 per cent of Budget estimates (BE), respectively, in the first half of 2025-26 (FY26). The total capital expenditure for April-September of FY26 stood at 52 per cent of the BE, according to the latest data by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
Market reaction to the Union Budget was overall neutral. The income tax "gift" wasn't enough to move the needle. There was some apparent rationalisation of Customs duty structure as well as cuts on import duties of some key components for the telecom and IT industry and duty cuts on vehicle imports. Other proposals related to development of agriculture and rural economy and renewables seem to be generally positive.
The Opposition on Wednesday slammed the Railway Budget saying it will promote regional imbalance and criticised its use to promote political ends. Initiating the general discussion on the Railway Budget in the Rajya Sabha, Kalraj Mishra (BJP) said Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been neglected and most of the projects have gone to West Bengal.
'There's a misconception that all Rs 1 lakh crore will be spent immediately, leading to higher consumption of FMCG goods, travel, and vehicle purchases.' 'While some of this money will go toward consumption, not all of it will.' 'The impact depends on where people deploy their savings.'
Facing huge financial crunch, the Railways has invited suggestions from the general public to increase its revenue and reduce expenditure ahead of the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament.
If the fiscal deficit target of 4.9% of GDP has to be met for 2024-2025, which the government must in view of the uncertainties and challenges emerging both domestically and globally, the finance ministry may see in the composition of the current year's capex a sliver of hope, notes A K Bhattacharya.
10 largecaps stocks which stand to gain from the Budget.
The entire Budget-making exercise will be advanced by 3-4 weeks so as to complete the legislative part of financial business before April 1, the start of a financial year
The clarification comes in wake of media reports that Finance Ministry is contemplating to merge the Railway and General budgets and change the financial year.
India's food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay on Thursday met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi ahead of the general\nbudget on July 6.
Opens operations in high-speed train, freight and suburban corridors to private sector
Indian Railways has managed to improve its freight volumes each year since the pandemic. However, its inability to add new industries and goods will pose a challenge for the national transporter in the wake of it setting an ambitious target of 45 per cent share in the national logistics by 2030. According to officials, the ministry of railways achieved 114 million tonnes (mt) of miscellaneous goods (classified as balance and other goods) in 2023-24.
Railways to have functional autonomy, bear salary burden
All eyes are now on the low profile Mukul Roy, Trinamool Congress general secretary and Minister of State for Shipping.
All eyes are now on the low profile Mukul Roy, Trinamool Congress general secretary and Minister of State for Shipping.
7 key areas that the Budget must address to re-energise the infrastructure sector, suggests Vinayak Chatterjee.
There was no money, sponsors didn't make a beeline and foreign tours were an ordeal, but there were women of steel who believed in the old adage that "the show must go on." And Nutan Gavaskar was the first among equals, one of the torchbearers of the women's cricket movement in India back then in 1973.
'These children possess catastrophically low birth weights -- often 1.4 kgs or less. Such extremely low birth weight results in profoundly compromised neo-natal immunity.' 'The escalation to 97 deaths in three months precipitated contemporary attention precisely because this magnitude concentrates the humanitarian emergency, rendering it impossible for the administrative machinery to ignore.'
In his letter to Modi, Kharge hit out at the railway minister for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, saying the law enforcement agency is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents.
With an eye on the forthcoming general elections, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday presented a feel good, populist interim Railway Budget in Parliament, cutting mail and express train fares by 2 per cent and keeping freight rates unchanged.
Going by the number of changes Mr Jaitley's next Budget is likely to see, he will go down in the history of Budget-making as the finance minister who ushered in the largest number of changes in a single Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
The General Budget will be presented on July 6 and the Railway Budget will be presented on July 3.
