With festivals like Diwali and Durga Puja round the corner, a very harsh decision by Modi Government to introduce surge pricing in Rail tickets.
Railway Ministry from tomorrow, is going to introduce flexi fare system in Rajdhani, Duranto and Shatabdi trains which came as a big shock for the people.
As per the government release, the base fares of these trains will increase by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold subject to a prescribed ceiling limit. This means with the increase in demands of tickets, the price will automatically increase.
While 10 per cent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with the ceiling limit at maximum 50 per cent depending upon the demand.
For 2AC and Chair Car, the maximum hike is 50 per cent while for 3AC, it is 40 per cent. Other supplementary charges like reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges, service tax as applicable shall remain unchanged.
Surge pricing occurs when a company raises the price of its offering if there is an increase in demand.
The plan has turned out to be a political hot potato with opposition parties terming it ‘anti-people’.
It has to be remembered the surge pricing system has been introduced at a time when the commuter is already under the impression that the railways is already looting their hard earned money. What has made matters worse is the fact that surge pricing as a business strategy is seen in the grey area of business ethics.
The railways currently starts booking four months in advance and has 30 percent of the seats for tatkal. After taking into account the VIP and other forms of quota which take away another 10 percent, roughly about 60 percent of the seats are available for the general public for booking four months in advance. That means irrespective of 4 months duration, hardly after 10-15 days, one has to pay atleast 10% more on tickets.
