The government on Wednesday said 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 the Railways.
“Passenger fare in most of the classes is very low. Passenger segment over Indian Railways has suffered a recurring loss due to low fare and concessions to different categories of passengers,” Minister of Railways Ashiwini Vaishnaw said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
The Minister 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 the Railways, hence extending scope of concessions to all categories of passengers including senior citizens is not desirable,” he said.
The Minister, however, added that in spite of these challenges, Indian Railways has continued concession in fare to four categories of persons with disabilities, eleven categories of patients and students
As per the data shared by the Minister, revenue foregone due to concessions in passenger fare to senior citizen passengers for both reserved and unreserved category 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.
“Decrease in travelling of number of senior citizen passengers during 2020-21 and 2021-22 may be in view of Pandemic due to COVID-19,” he noted.
“...during 2019-20, 22.62 lakh senior citizen passengers had opted to give up concession scheme in passenger fare and gave up concessions for the sustained development of Railways with better facilities,” the Minister added.
