The government is planning to restore the concessions on railway tickets given to senior citizens and others after it faced severe criticism from people.
The decision comes close to the heels of the Railways informing the Parliament that it is not “desirable” to restore concessions on railway tickets given to senior citizens and sports persons as the cost of granting concessions “weighs heavily” on Railways.
“We are reviewing the decision on Railway concessions... all aspects including how big each segment is and how much does it cost Railways and then a way forward will be planned,” a senior Railways official said.
The Railways is also delibrating if such concessions can be given only for the general and sleeper classes or if the age limit can be tweaked upwards for senior citizen concession. Additionally, Railways is also looking at if concessions can credited to the bank accounts of eligible travellers post the booking of tickets, instead of giving it upfront.
Last week, Minister of Railways Ashiwini Vaishnaw had informed Lok Sabha that passenger fare in most of the classes is very low, and passenger segment over Indian Railways has suffered recurring loss due to low fare and concessions to different categories of passengers.
The minister had reasoned that Indian Railways is already bearing more than 50% of the cost of travel on an average for all passengers, including senior citizens on account of lower fare structure for passenger services. Apart from this, due to Covid 19, passenger earnings for the last two years are less in comparison to 2019- 2020.
“These have long term impact on the financial health of the Railways. Cost of granting concessions weighs heavily on Railways, hence extending scope of concessions to all categories of passengers including senior citizens is not desirable,” he had said.
As per the official data, revenue foregone by Railways due to concessions in passenger fare to senior citizen passengers for both reserved and unreserved stood at ₹1,491 crore in 2017-18, ₹1,638 crore in 2018-19 and ₹1,667 crore in 2019-20.
The number of senior citizen passengers that travelled in reserved classes during 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 stood at 6.18 crore, 1.90 crore and 5.55 crore, respectively.
