Business & Economy

Rail budget: No change
in passenger fares

What is India News Service, Saturday, 26 February 2005, 1700 hrs IST


Railway Minister Lalu Prasad left unchanged the passenger fares for all classes as well as freight rates while giving concessions to unemployed, rural students, farmers and milk producers.

In his second budget in eight months, he reduced the freight rate on kerosene and LPG and proposed free travel to uemployed youth for appearing in interviews for state government jobs.

Prasad's variety of concessions included 50 per cent reduced fares for farmers and milk producers to travel to national institutes for training and to rural girl students to appear in national level entrace examinations for professional courses in colleges.

Back from a gruelling campaign in Bihar Assembly elections, whose outcome could have a profound impact on national and state political equations, Prasad faced largely empty opposition benches through his 105-minute budget speech in Hindi. The NDA-led opposition had chosen to stay away over the issue of "tainted" ministers in the Manmohan Singh Government.


There's a shine in industry: Industrial recovery of the past two years has gained momentum during the year. Low interest rates and government spending on infrastructure are the key reasons. The Survey says that outlook looks positive. The housing, car and white goods boom is flagging though the momentum remains strong. The survey added that the ongoing growth in manufacturing is investment led and fairly evenly spread. Double-digit growth in the capital goods sector was a sign of capacity expansion across industries. Industrial growth despite the Tsunami, the oil shock, and deficient monsoon indicates resilience.

Poor infrastructure impedes industrial Growth: Conceding that infrastructure and procedural bottlenecks are major growth hurdles, the economic survey warned the investment in the economy were much below neighbouring China and East Asia casting doubts about attaining 10 per cent industrial growth envisaged in the tenth plan.

Markets display pre-Budget jitters: pre-budget jitters rendered the bourses extremely volatile on the last trading session before the `B-Day'. The Sensex opened in the green but could not sustain it as nervous participants made portfolio adjustments before the Budget. 

Eicher move to sell tractor, engine business to TAFE: Eicher Motors Ltd (EML) is exploring a proposal to sell its tractor and engine businesses to Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE).

Subsidies must be rationalised: The Government must rationalise the subsidy regime even though drought has played the spoilsport in efforts to contain expenditure on subsidies, expected to touch Rs 43,516 crore in 2004-05y.

Inflation rise: oil, forex to blame: The Survey has absolved the Union government of any blame for the "sudden bout" of inflation in the first half of the current fiscal, which peaked at 8.74 per cent in August.

Survey bullish on capital market: Forecasting a buoyant capital market in the coming months, the pre-budget Economic Survey on Friday said it reflects investors confidence. However, the survey highlighted the need to remove weaknesses in the bond market.

Premji's commission to be linked to incremental profits: In what could be considered a trendsetter for Corporate India, soap-to-software maker Wipro Ltd has decided to link its Chairman's commission to the incremental net profits and not on the overall net profits as has been the practice so far.