Smart cities, high speed trains in next Budget: Mayaram

The Budget 2015-16 will include many of the schemes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi such as smart cities and high speed trains, Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram said.

The Finance Ministry has already initiated the exercise for Budget 2015-16 by seeking inputs from various ministries and departments.

"What you’ll see is a lot of action which is preparatory to the budget but includes many of the announcements that the Prime Minister has made recently," he said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

The ministries have been asked to submit revised estimates of expenditure for 2014-15 and demand for grants for the next financial year beginning April 1, 2015. This would be the second Budget of the Modi government.

Prescribing timelines for submission of proposals, discussion with Secretaries and finalisation of demand for grants, the ministry has asked officials to strictly adhere to the schedule.

The ministries have been asked to submit revised estimates of expenditure for 2014-15 and demand for grants for the next financial year beginning April 1, 2015.

Mayaram also said that work is under way on various infrastructure building projects such as smart cities, high speed rail and industrial corridors.

Mayaram is in Washington to participate in an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

"The actions that you’re seeing unfolding are all part of this bigger story...These small pieces are fitting in to make this big picture," he said. On global oil prices, the Secretary said a spike in the prices could weigh severely on India’s books.

"If there are no shocks of that nature...then we don’t think that there’s going to be a problem as far as revenues are concerned," he added.