RAILWAY SAMACHAR

IRFC may increase INR 7500 crore next fiscal

New Delhi : Indian Railway Finance Corporation is expected to raise market borrowings of INR 7,500 crore during the coming fiscal. This marks a substantial jump over the revised estimate of INR 6,907 crore for 2008-09 and the actual INR 4,604.43 crore in thepreceding fiscal. Mr S S Khurana chairman of the Railway Board said that "The Corporation has already mobilized INR 5,400 crore so far this fiscal. The remaining INR 2,100 crore will be mopped up before March 31st 2009."Mr R Kashyap MD of IRFC, which deploys the monies raised in acquiring rolling stock for leasing out to the railway said that "The bulk ofour borrowings have been for 15 years."The Railways, in turn, pays a lease charge on the use of IRFC' sassets. For 2008-09, the lease rental amount payable to IRFC would be INR 4,694 crore, while being budgeted at INR 5,294 crore in the ensuing fiscal. Mr Khurana said when asked that whether this did not tantamount to a debt trap wherein the annual lease rentals almost equaled the borrowings raised, these numbers did not reflect the real picture. He said that "The lease rentals are being paid on assets that have been acquired over a period and are cumulatively worth about INR 50,000 crore. So, it is not right to compare annual lease charges to annual borrowing sums."As on March 2008, IRFC had financed 54% of the 3,447 electric locos of Indian Railways, 43% of its 5,210 diesel locos, 66.43% of 41,623 coaches and 51.55% of 2,40,562 wagons.