Cutting across party lines, members in Rajya Sabha on Thursday asked the government to take steps and create a regulatory mechanism to ensure that Indian carriers do not charge "arbitrary" and "exorbitant" air fares from travellers.
Cutting across party lines, members in Rajya Sabha on Thursday asked the government to take steps and create a regulatory mechanism to ensure that Indian carriers do not charge "arbitrary" and "exorbitant" air fares from travellers.
Dissatisfied with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju's reply that a regulatory mechanism would mean "caps and floors" which would have implications for the ailing civil aviation sector, members of Congress, SP, CPI, CPI-M and JD-U staged a walkout. The demand was made when the House was discussing a calling attention motion on huge disparity in the air fares charged by airlines moved by Samajwadi Party member Naresh Agrawal.
Responding to the demand, Raju said the "complicated situation (facing the sector) does not have simplistic answers", but assured members that he had understood their sentiments and would try to find ways. He, however, did not appear favourable to the idea of setting minimum and maximum limits saying there are people who are buying tickets in advance at lower rates.
Besides Agrawal, several members including leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, sought that the government should lay down the minimum and maximum fares that can be charged. They also raised issues like baggage charges and pricing of tickets during festival season. Raju said that air fares are not fixed by the government and determined by the interplay of market forces.
Airlines are free to fix "reasonable" fares keeping in mind factors like cost of operations, reasonable profit and generally prevailing tariff. While the idea was to take air travel to common man, "lots of costs go into it which reflect in tickets," he said. On the issue of reduction in aviation fuel prices, he said that it is a highly taxed item and he has written to Chief Ministers urging them to reduce sales and other taxes on jet fuel.
Maintaining that most airlines were facing a financial crunch and not making profits, he referred to the problems faced by the sector and said "we must not throw the baby with the bathwater". While Kingfisher Airlines has "crashed", Spicejet too had faced turbulence, he said. Responding to points made by some members about high airfares during festive seasons, the Minister said that since it is known in advance, there is an option to buy tickets earlier.
On high price of eatables sold in flight, he said one had a choice not to buy it, to which some members protested. Earlier several MPs wanted to know while the fares of autos, taxis and buses can be fixed, why the same does not hold true for air travel.
Agrawal also sought to know why different airlines charged differently for the same route. Pitching for regulation of airfares, he said if necessary, the existing laws need to be changed. Emphasising the need to regulate airfare, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad suggested the government to put in place lower and upper slab for airfares and not to leave the decision on the "mercy of airlines".
CPI member D Raja asked if it was only the interplay of market forces that decides airfares, then what is the point of having an elected government. He said only Air India can provide stable prices but asked why its routes were cancelled to help private airlines. The situation is such, said Vijay Goel (BJP), that within an hour, ticket prices can jump from Rs 5000 to Rs 9000. He also said that during the time of Kashmir floods, people had to pay exorbitant prices for air travel.
K N Balagopal (CPI-M) said there should be a band specifying the highest and lowest prices for a route. He also raised problems faced by travellers as the baggage limit has been reduced to 15 kg. Speaking about the baggage related problems, he also took a dig at an earlier comment by the civil aviation minister, saying that while the minister can bring a match box as a special case, common people cannot.
Viplove Thakur (Cong) complained of high airfares saying that even a route like Delhi-Dharamsala cost Rs 22,500 and asked if it could be considered affordable. Thakur and several other members also said the reduction in fuel prices had not brought down the cost of air travel, even though it is one of the most important cost component.
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