Parliament Diary

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha resumed parallel sittings from 11AM to 6PM today. Demands for a discussion on the issue of rising fuel prices continued for the second day and both Houses saw repeated adjournments.

Lok Sabha will be taking up the Demands of Grants for the following Ministries for discussion and voting: Railways, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Road Transport and Highways, and Housing and Urban Affairs. The rest/outstanding will be guillotined next Wednesday, March 17.

Some notes from our analysis on the Ministry of Railways: 

• Revenue in 2021-22: Indian Railways’ revenue for 2021-22 is estimated at Rs 2,17,460 crore which is an annual increase of 12% over 2019-20.

• Impact of COVID-19:  In 2020-21, revenue from freight and passenger traffic is estimated to be 16% and 75% less than the budget estimates, respectively. This is on account of the passenger traffic volume declining by 87% and freight traffic volume declining by 7% (revised estimates) over the previous year.

• Budgetary support decreased:  In 2020-21, while the capital expenditure target has not seen any notable change from the budget to the revised stage, the budgetary support by the central government is estimated to decline from Rs 70,250 crore to Rs 29,250 crore (58% less). 

• Special Loan: As per the revised estimates, in 2020-21, Railways will receive a special loan of Rs 79,398 crore from the central government to meet the resource gap due to COVID-19 in 2020-21, and to meet pension fund obligations for 2019-20.