India Inc on Wednesday welcomed the Government’s decision to merge rail budget with the general budget and in-principle to advance the date of its presentation in Parliament from the usual February end.
The move will aid in faster implementation of decisions announced in the budget, boost business sentiment and curtail the pressure from populist demands on Railways, the industry said.
“The decision to merge the rail budget with the Union Budget and removal of the distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure are commendable initiatives to simplify and streamline decision-making within the Government and move towards efficiency of resource use,” CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said. “Purely from a policy point of view, the recent Cabinet decisions sends a clear message that the government is orchestrating big bang reforms in a major way,” he said. Ending a 92-year-old tradition, the Cabinet today decided to merge rail budget with the general budget and agreed in-principle to advance the date of its presentation in Parliament from the usual February end.
Banerjee stated that expediting the passage of the Budget is a move in the right direction as it would facilitate early implementation of Budget decisions. Global and domestic business sentiment would get a further fillip and so would the environment for doing business in the country.