Dear Comrades,
| Railway Minister Announces increase in Rail Passenger Fares | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ministry
of Railways has decided to increase the passenger fares with effective from the midnight of 21st
January 2013 and 22nd January 2013 (i.e. w.e.f. 0000 hours of
22-1-2013). This decision was announced today i.e. on 9th January 2013, by
Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal at a Press Conference held in Rail
Bhawan. Minister
of State for Railways Shri. Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy and Railway Board
Members were also present.
The
fare increase, class-wise, is as per the following table:
* In
addition to increase of 10 paise per km in case of First Class, 15 paise per km
in case of AC 2Tier and 30 paise per km in case of AC First / Executive Class
already implemented w.e.f. 01-04-12.
Moreover,
it has also been decided
(i) do away with the present practice of
levying Development Charge on passenger tickets, and
(ii)
have
all chargeable fares in multiples of Rs. 5/-.
Elaborating
the rational for fare hike, the Railway
Minister, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal said
that basic fares had not been
revised upwards in the last ten years
(except for the increase implemented w.e.f. 01-04-12 in respect of only First
Class @ 10 paise per km, AC 2Tier @ 15 paise per km and AC First / Executive
Class @ 30 paise per km). He pointed
out that Losses in passenger segment which were Rs.6159 Cr in 2004-05 had risen
to Rs.19964 Cr in 2010-11 (18% per annum) and
is expected to increase to Rs.25000 Cr in 2012-13.
Shri Bansal informed that Railway’s
Input costs have increased by 10.6% per annum between 2004-05 and 2010-11,
whereas fares stagnated or were reduced in Lower Classes aggravating passenger
losses. He emphasized that cross subsidy
through freight business is no more
viable in view of fast evolving competition from other modes. Referring to the 2012-13 Railway Budget, Shri Bansal said that across-the-board fare
hike proposal placed in 2012-13 Railway Budget in Parliament was finally
approved only for First, 2nd AC and First AC/Executive Classes, which together
constitute only about 0.3 % of total passengers and about 10% of total earnings
from passenger segment. The Railway
Minister pointed out that as a consequence Internal resource generation
was seriously impacted, resulting in
scaling down of Annual Plan size, which has now been limited to Rs. 51,000
crore in 2012-13 as against Rs. 61,000
crore that was originally targeted.
Similarly, Fund balances became negative in 2011-12, adversely affecting
essential replacement /renewal of assets, operation and maintenance activities
and critical safety & passenger amenity works. The Railway Minister emphasized that it was
in view of these factors, that increasing passenger fares had became
unavoidable. It was also necessary to do so in the overall interests of this
critical infrastructure as well as its
users on a sustainable basis.
AKS/hck/bs
|
