Responding to a Right to Information Act (RTI), the Indian Railways revealed that they earned an additional revenue of ₹5,800 crore in four years after withdrawing concessions for senior citizens. The Railway Ministry decided to withdraw these concessions after a countrywide lockdown was announced on March 20, 2020, due to COVID-19. Before that, the Railways used to offer up to 50% concession on ticket fare to senior citizens!
Railways Earn ₹5,800 Cr After Withdrawing Senior Citizen Concession
Responding to multiple RTI cases filed by Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Indian Railways has revealed that they have earned about ₹5,800 crore after withdrawing the concessions offered to senior citizens. The Railways earned this additional revenue in the last four years – from March 2020 to January 2024. The Railway Ministry withdrew the senior citizen concession on ticket fares on March 20, 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
While sharing copies of Railways’ replies, Chandra Shekhar Gaur said, “I filed three applications under the RTI Act. In the first application, the Railways provided me with additional revenue data from March 20, 2020, to March 31, 2022. In the second application, it gave me data from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. Since I filed the third application in February 2024, I got the data from April 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024.”
He further elaborated, “Since the replies from the Railways are year-wise and gender-wise, we can easily find out the additional revenue collected by it from March 20, 2020 to January 31, 2024.”
Concessions Offered To Senior Citizen Till March 2020
Since March 20, 2020, the Railway Ministry has withdrawn senior citizen concessions. Earlier, they offered a 50% concession on ticket fares to female senior citizens and a 40% concession to male and transgender senior citizen passengers. According to Railways, males and transgenders who are 60 and above, and females who are 58 and above fall in the category of senior citizens.
As per the data shared by the Railways in the RTI, one can conclude that around 13 crore males, 9 crore females, and 33,700 transgender senior citizens travelled with Indian Railways in these four years. The Railways was able to generate a total revenue of about ₹13,287 crore from these trips. And since they have withdrawn the concession, the senior citizens were required to pay full fare at par with other passengers. This way, the Railways was able to earn an additional ₹5,875 crore in these four years.
These Railway RTIs are revealing some mind-boggling numbers! Recently, the Railway Ministry released data that suggested they earned an additional revenue of ₹1,230 crore from cancelled waiting list tickets. What is your hot take on these extra earnings of Railways? Fill us in in the comments!
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