For the first time railways has set up guidelines to govern haulage charge payable on transportation of certain commodities including steel and cement. The guidelines, applicable from October 1, will lead to more than 200% increase in haulage charge for specified commodities.
Analysts believe the norms are intended to increase the freight earning of the national transporter. Haulage charge is paid by container train operators for availing rail lines and signalling systems, and is included in total freight revenue of railways.
The guidelines are applicable for transporting cement, stone other than marble, iron & steel, petroleum, oil and lubricant till March 31, 2011. The haulage charges have been fixed according to the commodity, weight and distance covered. The rates are uniformly applicable on domestic and export-import container traffic. The railways had fixed rates of haulage charge earlier too but they were commodity neutral. The rates were fixed based on weight and distance only. The last rates were issued in December 2009. Haulage charge form a major chunk of cost for container train operators and if operators decide to pass on the cost burden, price of cement and steel?whose rates are already rising rapidly?would increase further. Tata Steel, JSW and SAIL have hiked prices of some steel products by 1,000 per tonne this month, taking the price to more than Rs 30,000 per tonne.
?Haulage charge is included in freight earnings of railways and any increase in it would raise freight revenue. And here we are talking about a 200% increase in haulage charge,? a former financial commissioner of Indian Railways told FE.
