The Hindu Business Line : 'Railways loses Rs 702 cr on non-revision of II class fares'

"Financial impact in terms of loss of earnings due to non-revision of second class ordinary passenger fares was assessed at Rs 702 crore in respect of passengers who travelled in the distance slabs of 1-150 km during the years 2001-02 and 2002-03," said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report for the year ended 2004.

A review of the efforts made by the Railways in rationalisation of passenger fares, utilisation of the capacity and introduction of new train services revealed that almost 60 per cent of the passengers travelled to distances less than 150 km and of these 86 per cent passengers went in ordinary second class during the period, stated the report presented to Parliament today.

Out of a total of 69.38 crore passengers who travelled between the distance slab of 1-150 km in second class ordinary trains during 2002-03, 20.92 crore passengers travelled in distance slabs for which fares were reduced resulting in fall in revenue amounting to Rs 24 crore, it said.

By extrapolating results of test-checks, the Audit assessed loss of Rs 2,344.76 crore during 1999-00 to 2002-03 due to non-acceptance of recommendations of Railway Fares and Freights Committee (RFFC) to bring rail fares at par with bus fares, it added.

Fixing of passenger fares for Rajdhani trains at 15 per cent above Mail/Express fares instead of the 20 per cent recommended by RFFC deprived the Railways of an additional revenue of Rs 15.54 crore during 2003-04 alone, the report pointed out.

"Despite appointment of various committees for suggesting ways and means for augmentation of the Railways' revenue by rationalisation of passenger fares, the recommendations made were either not implemented or implementation was delayed nullifying the benefits to be derived there from," it said.

The Ministry of Railways has foregone an amount of Rs 325.84 crore on account of various concessions during 2003-04 alone, it said. Charging of 50 per cent fare instead of 75 per cent recommended by RFFC in respect of children provided with full berth resulted in a loss of Rs 0.28 crore during 2003-04 in respect of 21 trains selected by audit for test-check. Running of 33 ordinary passenger trains in excess of requirement in 13 out of 21 non-suburban sections test-checked resulted in loss of Rs 48.20 crore during 2003-04, the report said.

"Introduction of 18 pairs of Jan Shatabdi trains during 2002-03 and 2003-04 has resulted in loss of Rs 72.22 crore from the dates of their introduction to March 2004,"it said.

Introduction of new trains, extension of run of existing trains and increasing the frequency without conducting traffic surveys or cost analysis resulted in almost all the trains adding to losses incurred by the Railways, the report said.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
`Airbus remarks not to hit IA order for 43 aircraft'

Air Deccan asks Airbus for early delivery of A320s

Software comes to creator's aid in foreign land

'Railways loses Rs 702 cr on non-revision of II class fares'