Similarly, in the case of AC Two Tier, the increase would mean a hike of Rs 48 for a distance of 721 km, while for AC First Class it will be Rs 56 for a distance of 547 km.
Replying to questions, Bansal said the Railway Budget next month will not propose any fresh hike in passenger fares.
But when asked whether there would be hike in the freight tariff, he was non committal. “I am not saying anything either way. We are not saying anything now.”
Giving reasons for the decision which he described as reasonable, the minister said the losses in passenger segment, which was Rs 1,059 crore in 2004-05, rose to Rs 19,964 crore in 2010-11, an increase of 18 per cent a year. This is likely to go up to Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal.
Bansal said input costs have increased immensely over the years and the fares had remained stagnant or there was a little decrease in the lower class fares.
He said Railways was making efforts to raise revenues to meet urgent safety and user amenities requirements.
In addition, the Sixth Pay Commission meant an additional outgo of Rs 73,000 crore in the five year period and about one lakh crore till this time.
Bansal also said the freight traffic target could also not be met with the load showing a shortfall of 13 million tonne till December end.
He cross subsidy through freight business was no more viable in view of the fast evolving competition from other modes.
The across-the-board fare hike proposal of Dwivedi in the current year's budget was finally approved only for First Class, Second AC and First AC/ Executive Classes, which together constitute only about 0.3 per cent of total passengers and about 10 per cent of total earnings from passenger segment.
He said internal resource generation has been seriously impacted resulting in scaling down of Annual Plan size. Fund balances turned negative in 2011-12, adversely affecting essential replacement and renewal of assets, operation and maintenance activities and critical safety and passenger amenity works.
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