The Insurance & Finance Review. May 1930

The essence of the reform was laid down as "the complete separation of the railway budget from the general budget of the country and its reconstruction in a form which frees a great commercial business from the trammels of a System which assumes that the concern goes out of business on each 31st March and commences de novo on the 1st April ; and the emancipation of the railway management from the [...] The Acworth Committee demanded a radical reform of the whole financial method and particularly stressed the need for "the complete separation of the railway budget from the general budget of the country" and "the emancipation of the railway management from the control of the Finance Department." Mere separation of accounts and presentation of a separate railway budget for administrative convenie [...] (b) The rules of the Railway Reserve fund should be modified with a view to permit the use of the fund in any way best suited to the commercial requirements of the railways both in capital as well as in revenue expenditure in improving railway facilities and in the rduction of rates and fares. [...] The cost of the Abyssinian and Chinese Wars was similarly debited to India and these together with the expenditure of the Goverment on State railways irrigation works famine relief and maintenance of the exchange raised the total debt to £212 millions at the close of the last century. [...] The question of first-rate importance that presents itself in this connection is what is the Government's credit policy ? Is it sound scientific and planned in the best interests both of Government as well as of the country its trade and industry of national banking and insurance and of the strength and dIrability of the foundations of national credit ? The criteria of a nation's credit are :