New Delhi: The Indian Railways is estimated to spend ₹2.55 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-25. This is nearly 5% higher than last year. A substantial chunk of the capital expenditure of the railway budget would be to boost safety measures with a view to checking train accidents.
It’s said that the railway ministry has allocated ₹1.08 lakh crore for railway safety in the current fiscal. Approval of Kavach ‘4.0’ system and manufacturing extra general coaches announced. Angel tax abolition praised for benefiting startups and addressing valuation concerns.
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Talking to media persons Vaishnaw on Tuesday said, “ ₹1.08 lakh crore of budget allocation to Indian Railways will be used to boost railway safety in 2024-25. The Kavach ‘4.0’ safety system has been approved and 4,275 km optical fibre cables have been laid under Kavach systems in India.
“Kavach will get a major part of the funds earmarked for safety-related measures. In keeping with rise in demand for general class travels, the ministry would arrange 10,000 extra general coaches over and above the 2,500 general coaches announced earlier will be manufactured in India,” the minister added.
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Vaishnaw said that the operating ratio target of India Railways for 2024-25 has been set as 98.22% from 98.65% in 2023-24.
Abolition of angel tax
In a major step to boost startup ecosystem in India, Vaishnaw said that the government would do away with the angel tax. “It is a very good decision and has been the biggest demand of deep tech startups. The move will spur investment in startups,” he added.
“Angel tax has been a long-standing issue…deep tech startups had a major issue on how do you do valuation… that point has been addressed with its abolition,” he said at a post-budget conference.
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Rationalisation of customs duty
Vaishnaw also said that the IT Ministry is working on developing mobile component ecosystem. “The budget has announced rationalisation of customs duty which will hugely benefit the industry. Server and laptop manufacturing has started in India. The success we have witnessed in mobile manufacturing, we will witness the same in this sector,” he added.
