The government has earmarked a grant of Rs 39 billion for Pakistan Railways for the fiscal year 2019-20 to meet its losses against Rs 37 billion allocated for 2018-19, revealed budget documents.
The government has budgeted a total of Rs 113 billion for Pakistan Railways for fiscal year 2019-20 against Rs 125.5 billion budgeted for current fiscal year, showing a decrease of around seven percent.
Under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), the government has earmarked Rs 16 billion for the next fiscal year against Rs 39 billion earmarked for the current fiscal year which was later revised to Rs 28.05 billion. Further Rs 97 billion have been earmarked to defray salaries and other expenses of railway's employees.
The railways has a huge employees related expenditure amounting to Rs 97 billion for the next fiscal year against Rs 87.5 billion for the outgoing year, which was later revised to Rs 90 billion.
Operating cost for 2019-20 was estimated at Rs 22.83 billion against the revised Rs 20.985 billion for the current fiscal year. The railways will spend Rs 33.375 billion in terms of employees' retirement benefits against Rs 31.114 billion for the current fiscal year which were later revised to Rs 31.614 billion.
The Pakistan Railways will have to pay Rs 173.2 million for catering to the transfers and postings of its employees. Further, Rs 12.083 billion have been budgeted for allowance for next fiscal year against Rs 9.518 billion for the outgoing fiscal year.
An allocation of Rs 4.5 billion has been made for Main Line (ML-1) railways project for revamping the railways sector under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Rs 400 million for rehabilitation of 300 traction motors, Rs 1000 million for procurement / manufacture of 75 nos. new D.E. locos, Rs 1.4 billion for reconstruction of assets damaged during the floods 2010, Rs 5 million for special repair of 150 DE locos, Rs 505 million for up-gradation /renovation of railways stations, Rs 571 million for up-gradation of terminal facilities and dry ports, Rs 800 million for acquisition of land for Railway corridor at Gawadar, Rs 2.439 billion for procurement/manufacture of 820 high capacity/bogie freight wagons and 230 passenger coaches, Rs 1,000 million for replacement of old and obsolete signal gear from Lodhran Khanewal -Shahdara Bagh mainline section of the Pakistan Railways.
The new initiatives of the railways include procurement of new rolling stock, improvement of signaling system, feasibility study for provision of new rail links from Gwadar to the rest of the railways network to facilitate functioning of the Gwadar deep sea water port, feasibility for connection of Thar coal to main line and commercial feasibility for new double track from Hyderabad to Karachi.
According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, Pakistan Railways' gross earning revenue grew by 10.3 percent and amounted to Rs 34.0661 billion during fiscal year 2019 (July-February) against Rs 30.891 billion during the same period of last year. However, a parliamentary panel was recently informed that the Pakistan Railways suffered Rs 28.62 billion deficits during the first eight months of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government. The railways generated Rs 43 billion during the first eight months of the incumbent government against the expenditure of over Rs 72 billion.
Comments
Comments are closed.