After wheat, iron ore, Railways raises wagon registration fee for all goods

Months after it hiked wagon registration charges of wheat and iron ore to curb exports, the Ministry of Railways has now made a fourfold increase in these charges for all goods, a circular by the ministry said.

The registration charges to book a wagon have been revised to Rs 6,000 per wagon, as against Rs 1,500 earlier. Moreover, the charge for booking an entire rake, or goods train, has been revised to Rs 100,000 from the earlier Rs 50,000.

“Following up on the previous rate increases on specific commodities, we decided to hike it for all commodities since the rates had not been changed for 10-12 years. It was necessary to adjust these rates against inflation,” an official at the railways ministry said.

 

The official added that the wagon registration fee is a subset of total freight charges and the hikes will not have any significant impact on the overall freight rates. The new policy is only to ensure that non-serious transporters don’t choke the wagon supply by booking more than they need, he said.

According to sources, several private players had been booking more wagons than required due to the low registration charges, which are refundable in most ordinary cases of cancellation. Players which provide more than Rs 100 crore of freight revenue to the railways are exempted from these charges.

Moreover, lumpsum deposits for government departments have also been hiked by almost more than 16 times, now at Rs 5 lakh, against the earlier Rs 30,000. These changes will be effective from November 1.