Train fares jacked up by 5%

The Pakistan Railways (PR) has jacked up train fares by 5% after a sharp increase in the prices of petroleum products adding to the woes of the common person for whom it was a relatively cheap mode of transportation.

Its administration has increased the fares of all mail express, passenger, and inter-city trains.

Parcel and baggage rates have also been increased by 5%.

The new rates will come into effect from Saturday (today).

In a notification signed by PR Deputy Chief Marketing Manager Zeeshan Shahzad, divisional superintendents across the country have been directed to implement the new fares from the new date.

“If any discrepancy is observed by the concerned station/commercial staff, it must be reported to the office of CMM [chief marketing manager] as well as Director [of] IT [information technology] through [the] concerned DCOs [divisional commercial officers] within 7 days,” it read.

“In case of non-reporting of any discrepancy, changes made therein will attain finality automatically,” the notification added.

The train fares have been increased for the second time in the last 16 days.

On Aug 16, the fares of passenger and freight trains were increased by 10% and 5%, respectively.

It has been learnt that because of the hike in the prices of petroleum products, the PR, which was already suffering from a loss of billions of rupees, had come under more burden.

With the prices of high-speed diesel (HSD) going up by Rs18.44 to Rs311.84 per litre, an extra burden of billions of rupees has fallen on the PR.

An average of 350,000 litres of diesel is used daily on the PR system.

Because of the hike in the diesel prices, an additional burden of over Rs645,000 has been imposed on the PR on a daily basis. This means a monthly increase of roughly around Rs19.30 million. This translates into an annual increase of Rs2.33 billion.

Sources said the financial affairs of the PR were already in a poor state and its employees were getting their salaries late.

That left the PR with no choice but to increase its fares.

A day earlier, the caretaker government gave in to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) diktat and announced a whopping Rs18.44 per litre increase in the prices of petrol and HSD.

According to a notification issued by the Finance Division, the price of petrol increased by Rs14.91 to Rs305.36 per litre from the earlier Rs290.45 while that of HSD rose by Rs18.44 to Rs311.84 against Rs293.40 per litre.

The prices of both petrol and diesel crossed the Rs300 per litre mark for the first time in the country’s history.