New Delhi: Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), is likely to be listed in mid-March this year, said multiple sources in the know. For the present fiscal (2019-20), Railways’ borrowing target has been increased by almost ₹10,000 crore, an 18 per cent jump from the budgeted ₹55,471 crore.
For the next fiscal (2020-21) though, the market borrowing arm has a budgeted target to raise ₹58,000 crore, lower than the ₹65,471 crore in the present fiscal. The public sector enterprise filed its draft offer document for the initial public offer with SEBI in January this year.
From the over ₹65,000 crore that the IRFC is supposed to mobilise in fiscal 2019-20, more than half will (₹34,031 crore) will be spent by the Indian Railways for buying engines, coaches and wagons, while the remaining ₹31,440 crore has to be used for funding various projects.
Similarly, for financial year 2020-21, about ₹30,000 crore (almost 52 per cent) will be used for buying rolling stock like engines, coaches and wagons; and ₹28,000 crore will be used for funding projects.
In 2019, IRFC’s funds were used for buying or leasing 707 engines, 5,598 coaches and 9,069 wagons for the Railways.
