Maharashtra, might not want to play party-pooper by pushing for a fare hike. This time, the Railway's finances will be part of the general finance budget that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present on February 1.
The possibility of a suburban fare realisation — railway terminology for increasing fares as suburban season tickets are subsidised — in the forthcoming general budget is turning out to be a tricky affair for the Railways as civic polls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are scheduled for February 21. Railway officials agreed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), buoyed by its success in the recent civic body polls across
Maharashtra, might not want to play party-pooper by pushing for a fare hike. This time, the Railway's finances will be part of the general finance budget that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present on February 1.
"The problem with a suburban fare hike is that it is calculated in such a way that the hike is always steep, even if the percentage rise might seem innocuous. It might not go down well with citizens," said an official.
In the past, The Railway Ministry's announcement of a fare hike, which came into effect on June 25, 2014, created an uproar. While the normal percentage hike for long-distance tickets was 14.2 per cent (a 10 per cent increase, with the rest adjusted as fuel adjustment rate and service tax), the calculation for suburban fares saw the price of tickets skyrocket.
This was because the railways decided to charge commuters for 30 journeys per month on every second class monthly season ticket, instead of the current 15 journeys that are charged per month. The ministry then ordered that fares of first class monthly tickets be four times that of the second class season tickets.
At present, a second class season pass is calculated as 15 single second class journeys on the same route, though officials claim that the number of journeys made on a pass in Mumbai is an average of 50 per month.. The fares also come with surcharges.
These surcharges have been levied in order for the railways to pay back World Bank loans for the first and second phases of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project. It is also meant to pay back CIDCO for building railway stations beyond Vashi. "The fare hike was over 100 per cent for Mumbaikars. It will not go down well with commuters," said an official. The move had to be pulled back after BJP members raised the issue with the then Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
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