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New Delhi , Feb. 26

FOR a third successive year in running, there is no increase in rail passenger fares or an effort at `rebalancing' tariffs, currently highly biased in favour of lower classes.

Mr Lalu Prasad's Rail Budget for 2005-06 is no different from the one he presented for 2004-05, or for that matter, his predecessor Mr Nitish Kumar's Rail Budget of 2003-04 and Ms Mamata Banerjee's 2000-01 and 2001-02 versions. That makes Mr Kumar's 2002-03 Rail Budget the only one in the last six years, which sought to `bite the bullet' by resorting to an 8-13 per cent hike in commuter fares, while simultaneously reducing the incidence of cross-subsidisation across passenger segments.

The move to retain status quo on passenger fares means that out of the Railways' total budgeted passenger earnings of Rs 15,080 crore during 2005-06, the upper class travellers will contribute Rs 3,286.42 crore or 21.79 per cent. But in terms of their share in traffic volume - in terms of total passenger-kilometres - the upper classes will account for just 7.08 per cent.

Simply put, while those travelling in upper class segments will constitute only 7.08 per cent of the total passenger traffic to be handled by Railways during 2005-06, they will, however, generate 21.79 per cent of its overall passenger revenues. On the other hand, the various non-AC sleeper and ordinary class commuters make up 92.92 per cent of the Railways' total traffic volumes, but contribute only 72.21 per cent of its passenger revenues. And that is an indicator of how skewed the existing tariffs are in favour of lower classes.

Again, just to get an idea about how much commuters pay, the Railways' average revenue per passenger-kilometre during 2005-06 is expected at slightly over 25 paise. An average person commuting by second class (ordinary) would pay less than 15 paise for every kilometre he travels, while these work out to 26 paise for second class (mail and express trains), 29 paise for sleeper class (mail and express), 61 paise for AC chair car, 62 paise for AC 3-tier, Rs 1.24 for AC sleeper and Rs 2.49 for AC first class.

During the coming fiscal, Railways is expected to transport 570.74 crore passengers, which translates into 1.56 crore people every day. In other words, it means roughly 1.5 per cent of India's population are everyday on the move in a train!

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