Starting next month you may have to give up rail fare subsidy

The option to give up subsidy will be available for tickets booked online or purchased directly from the counters.

Starting next month, you may have to give up rail fare subsidy. This comes close on the heels of the government launching the Give it up campaign on cooking gas subsidy.

Railway passengers will be given the option to voluntarily give up their subsidy on tickets. The scheme is set to be launched next month. The government would the railways would offer two slabs to surrender subsidy.

You could either give up 50 per cent of 100 per cent of the subsidy. As of now the railways bears 43 per cent of the cost of all rail fares. The decision to introduce the scheme to give up subsidy is being taken in the wake of the railways suffering a loss of Rs 30,000 crore every year due to subsidised passenger fares.

The option to give up subsidy will be available for tickets booked online or purchased directly from the counters. There was an awareness drive launched in which it was printed on tickets that the Indian Railways recovers only 57 per cent of cost of travel on an average.

OneIndia News