To offset recent diesel price hike Railway Minister may bite the bullet on fare hike

26 Feb 2013 Evaluate

All eyes will be on Railway Budget today as whether the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal succumbs to the pressure of raising passenger fares yet again or will he opt for other measures to mobilize resources to counterbalance the burden of the recent diesel price hike.

Earlier on January 22, the railway minister hiked passenger fares across-the-board after the Railways faced a loss of about Rs 25,000 crore in the passenger segment. However, the government’s decision to raise the diesel price and the move to charge bulk consumers like defence, railways and state transport undertakings market price which is almost Rs 10 a litre more than retail selling rate, kept the railways in a spot, since it will have to buy the fuel at the market price with an increase thereby arising another prospect of passenger fare hike to absorb additional outgo due to diesel price hike.

A slew of passenger-friendly measures are also expected to be announced by Bansal in his maiden budget such as improvement in catering service, introducing Braille stickers in coaches for visually-challenged passengers, maintaining cleanliness at rail premises, development of stations and launching of about 100 new trains.

Further, despite resistance from the industry due to the slow economic growth, minor tinkering in freight rates is expected and some announcements of freight schemes to attract more loadings in the next fiscal 2013-14 is also likely to be announced.

To discuss the possibility of fare hike, the rail minister held several rounds of discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the Planning Commission. However, a section of the Congress is not leaning towards effecting another round of fare hike as general elections are not far away.

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