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Swarajya Staff
Dec 09, 2018, 12:08 AM | Updated 12:08 AM IST
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Indian Railways has taken a decision to remove its flexi fare scheme from 15 premium trains and reduced the fare slab in other, New Indian Express has reported.
Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal announced the decision on Twitter.
Early Diwali Gift: Railways has decided to remove Flexi Fares from trains with less than 50% occupancy, and will reduce Flexi Fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base fare. #AffordableRailways https://t.co/wKa4ZLzVkX pic.twitter.com/wheq9rSMrC
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) November 1, 2018
The flexi fare was introduced on 9 September 2016, in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains. During 2016-17 (September-March), 2017-18 and 2018-19 (April-June), the railways earned approximately Rs 371 crore, Rs 860 crore and Rs 262 crore, respectively, as additional revenues from trains having flexi fare.
Under the new flexi fare policy, the base fare increases from 10 per cent to 50 per cent with every 10 per cent of the berths booked.
After concerns were raised over the flexi fare system, an eight-member panel was set up review the scheme and make it more passenger friendly. The review of the scheme has been done based on the recommendation of the committee, CAG report and representations from passengers, the railways said.
As per the reports by the Railways Board, the highest slab has been reduced from 50 per cent from 40 per cent. Flexi fare will be reduced in the months of February, March and August for the other 32 trains.