OREANDA-NEWS. Austerity and economy measures are regularly adopted on Railways to ensure saving in expenditure. Further, guidelines of Ministry of Finance on expenditure management and austerity are also followed by Railways. The various measures taken by Railways inter alia include-
Economy & Expenditure Control Measures:
•   Austerity and economy measures in areas such as hospitality, publicity, advertisement, inaugural ceremonies, seminars & workshops, contingent and office expenses etc.
•   Tight control over expenditure in areas such as contractual payment, overtime allowance, purchase of material etc.
•   Controlling the growth of non-plan expenditure.
Cost Cutting Measures:
•   Better asset utilization.
•    Improvement in inventory management.
•     Optimising the fuel consumption.
•    Improving staff productivity by better man-power planning.
•     Prioritisation of expenditure on works for better use of available resources.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.