The Centre may have to pass a resolution in Parliament in the upcoming session to finally put an end to the practice of presenting a separate Rail Budget, senior Railway Ministry officials said.
Although the Constitution does not provide for a separate Rail Budget, it was separated from general finances after a resolution was passed in the Legislative Assembly (now Parliament) based on the recommendations made by the Acworth Committee in 1921.
“Based on the recommendations made by Acworth Committee, it was decided that the separation of Railway Finances be effected by means of a Convention to be laid before the Legislative Assembly (now Parliament), in the form of a resolution, and that the Assembly be asked to agree to it,” the official said, on conditions of anonymity. The matter was placed before the House, which voted the Convention resolution of 1924, the official added.
Unilateral step“Presentation of a separate Budget is more of a matter of Convention than any rule. Government decided to introduce a resolution to do this,” the official said.
After the Union Cabinet approved merger of railway and general Budget, opposition parties attacked the government for not consulting the Parliament.
“The decision by the Union Cabinet to merge the Railway Budget with the General Budget is a unilateral step taken without a discussion in parliament. It was the Parliament which was empowered to discuss railway finances and development,” Communist Part of India (Marxist) had said in a press statement.
Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi had also said that the “Parliament was not taken into confidence.”
“…the State, should get a fair and stable return from the money it has spent on its Railways; but if you go further, if you take from the Railways more than that fair return, then you are indulging in a concealed way in one of the most vicious forms of taxation, namely a tax on transportation.
“One of the objects we have most at heart in putting these proposals before this House is to establish that principle,” the government had stated when the proposal for resolution was presented to 1924 Assembly.
