The diesel price hike has come as a shocker for the Railways,which is reeling under a financial crunch.However,there is no immediate plan to increase freight tariff.
The Rs 5 hike in the price of diesel is expected to put an additional burden of around Rs 1,200 crore every year on the cash-strapped Railways,headed by Trinamool Congress nominee Mukul Roy.There is no move as yet to increase freight charges though the increase in diesel price will hit us badly.As of now,we have no plan to shift the burden on freight operators, a senior railway official said.
The railways had effected a 20-25 % hike in freight rates before the rail budget this year. The transporter consumes about 280 crore litres of diesel every year to run its fleet of around 4,500 diesel locomotives,hauling both freight and passenger trains. The Railways paid about Rs 13,209 crore in the current fiscal and Rs 11,741 crore during the last fiscal towards its fuel bill.The increase in fuel consumption every year is due to addition of new services and more freight haulage.
Since nearly six months have already passed in 2012-13,the additional cost of the fuel bill will be around Rs 100 crore per month this fiscal, an official said.
The three oil PSUs IndianOil, HPCL and BPCL supply fuel providing a subsidy of 30 paisa per litre as the Railways is a bulk consumer.
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