Indian Railways has earned an additional revenue of more than Rs 2,000 crore in the financial year 2022-23, by suspending the senior citizen concession on trains. This has been figured in an RTI reply by the Ministry of Railways.
The railways had earned a total revenue of Rs 5,062 crore from senior citizen commuters in the previous fiscal. This also includes an additional revenue of Rs 2,242 crore, which earned due to the suspension of the concession.
The national transporter suspended the concession on March 20, 2020, due to the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. During the post-pandemic scenario, when the train services got back to normalcy, the demand for resuming senior citizen concessions started surfacing. However, the government refused to resume the concession citing losses incurred by the national transporter due to the low fares.
The women senior citizen commuters are eligible to get a 50 per cent concession in trains, while male and transgenders can avail 40 per cent in all classes. The minimum age to avail the concession for women commuters is 58 years, while for male travellers is 60 years.
In the last two decades, the concession for senior citizen travellers in railways, has been a much-discussed topic. In July 2016, the railways made the concession of elderly people optional. The railways incurs a huge burden of around Rs 2,000 crore every year due to around 53 types of concessions it offers to various kinds of passengers.
Earlier this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways had asked the government to reconsider the decisions regarding the concessions to senior citizen commuters. In its report, tabled in both the houses of the Parliament, the committee urged the ministry to review its earlier decision and considered allowing concessions to senior citizens at least in Sleeper Class and 3A Class.