Indian Railways - Linked revision in Passenger fare and Freight tariff
Posted on: 07/Oct/2013 12:27:56 PM
In the Railway Budget for 2013-14, the proposal to implement Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC)-linked tariff revision, bi-annually in sync with movement in fuel costs in either direction was introduced. While the proposal was implemented in the case of freight tariffs w.e.f. 01.04.2013, passenger fares were kept out of the purview of FAC-linked revision at that time, primarily on grounds that these had been revised upwards after a hiatus of ten years only recently, i.e. w.e.f. 22nd Jan’2013.
In the present exercise, the escalation recorded in fuel cost during the period February 2013 to July 2013 only has been factored in:
- High Speed Diesel (HSD): + 7.3%
- Electricity (Railway Traction): 15.5%
The Ministry of Railways has now decided to revise passenger fare and freight tariffs linking it with Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC). The revised passenger fare will be effective from the midnight of 6TH October and 7th October 2013 (i.e 0000 hours of 7th October 2013). The revised freight tariff will be effective from the midnight of 9th October and 10th October 2013 (i.e. 0000 hours of 10th October 2013).
In the case of tickets already issued at pre-revised rate, the difference in fare and other charge will be recovered for journeys undertaken on or after 10thOctober, 2013 either by TTEs on the trains or by the booking/reservation offices before the commencement of journey by passenger.
The assessed impact of FAC-linked revision is as under:
1.Passenger Fares:
- No increase in either Second Class Ordinary (Suburban) or Second Class MST fares;
- Fares for Second Class Ordinary (Non-Suburban) would go up by a maximum of Rs. 5/- in select distance slabs, while in the other distance slabs there would be no change in existing fares.
- In all other classes, the revised fares would be only about 2% higher than the existing fare.
- Anticipated incremental l earning would be around Rs.450/- crore in the balance six months of the financial year.
2.Freight Tariffs:
- An across-the-board increase of about 1.7% in freight rates.
- Anticipated incremental earning would be around Rs. 700/- crores in the balance six months of this financial year.
The detailed revised passenger fare table is available on the website of Indian Railways, namely http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/
