The Minister of Railways D V Sadananda Gowda, while presenting the Railway Budget for 2014-15 in Parliament, gave details of the Budget estimates of Railways for the year 2014-15 as under:-
Anticipating a healthier growth of economy, it is hoped to achieve total receipts of Rs. 1,64,374 crore and would peg total expenditure at Rs. 1,49,176 crore.
The freight traffic growth of 4.9% amounting to 1,101.25 million tonne, an increment of 51.07 million tonne over 2013-14, based on trends in the first two months it anticipated. Also anticipated is a small growth in Passenger Traffic over 2013-14. Earnings from Freight Traffic are estimated at Rs. 1,05,770 crore and from Passenger Traffic Rs. 44,645 crore.
Periodic revision in passenger fare and freight rates, will be linked to revisions in fuel prices in order to insulate the Railway revenues from fuel cost escalation.
Out of total expenditure, the ordinary working expenses have been proposed at Rs. 1,12,649 crore, which is Rs. 15,078 crore higher than 2013-14. This has been necessitated by fuel price hike and increase in staff costs. Pension outgo in 2013-14 had grown by about 16%. Keeping the same trend, provision for pension is kept at Rs. 28,850 crore.
Operating ratio in 2014-15 is pegged at 92.5% which is 1 % better than that in 2013-14.