Indian Railways extends support for giving a boost to economy & announces measures of Freight incentive

Indian Railways announces certain Freight incentives to give a boost to the economy. Member (Traffic), Railway Board Shri P.S. Mishra, announced these measures, to support various segments of the industry. Details of these measures announced on 12.09.19 are as under:

A. Freight rate related measures:

1. Levy of Busy Season Charge Deferred:
   • Busy Season Cess, which is levied @ 15% from 1st Oct to 30th June, has been deferred till further advice. This will be applicable for all commodities except for Iron ore and POL.
   • Coal & coke and container traffic are already exempt from levy of busy season charge.
   
2. Waiver of Supplementary charges on Mini and Two point rakes:
   · The 5% Supplementary charges applicable on Loading on Mini and Two point rakes is being waived off. This is likely to boost loading cement, food grains, fertilizers etc. This will benefit freight costomers who have medium loading requirement as well as loading need from more than one station.
   
3. Round-trip charging on container traffic& discount on movement of empty container and flat vagons :
   
   · As per existing policy minimum 50 km. on each side was being charged on container traffic which is now converted to 100 km. round trip which is about 35% cheaper as compaired to 50 km. each side. This is expected to give major relief to container customers loading at ICDs at Dadri, Kanpur, Khurja, Yamuna Bridge etc. Further a discount of 25% has been given on movement of empty container/flat to ports to increase loaded traffic in return.
   
4. Large-scale de-notification of commodities for container traffic
   • As per container haulage charging policy, notified commodities are charged at Container Class Rates (CCR), which is 15% lower than General Tariff Rates (GTR). Rest of the commodities are charged at Freight All Kind (FAK) rates, which are even lower than CCR.
   • Recently, 90 more commodities have been de-notified, which brought down their haulage charge from CCR to FAK rates.
   • Now, out of total 635 commodities in Goods Tariff, only 38 commodities are under notified/CCR rates (11 of these are POL commodities).
   
5. Freight Marketing initiatives:
   · Induction of more New Modified Goods car rakes and introduction of new design of Bi level auto car wagons (BCACBM wagons).
   · Rationalization of Road Railer with 4 new weight slabs instead of earlier 3 weight slabs. More competitive rates.
   · Weight and weighment conditions relaxed in perishable traffic when loaded in goods wagons
   B. Measures to enhance ease of business and digitisation
   
6. Pan-India Implementation of eT-RR
   • Facility of Electronic Transmission of Railway Receipts (eT-RR) has been successfully implemented across the country wef 01.08.2019
   • eT-RR is user-friendly and paperless transaction system where Railway Receipt is generated and transmitted electronically to customer through Freight Operation Information System (FOIS). Delivery of goods is given through e-surrender of eT-RR. That is, customer is saved the hassle of carrying physical Railway Receipt from originating to destination station
   • This facility is expected to bring down the transaction costs of rail customers, and also pave the way for greater digitisation.
   
7. Weighment-related reforms
   · Conventionally all open Wagons are weighed at electronic in motion weigh bridge (EIMWB). However railways has recently allowed pre-weigh bin system (where weighment is done while loading instead of existing system of EIMWB where weighment is done after loading) for weighment of goods traffic has been permitted in private sidings. This is expected to bring down the time for Weighment and loading, and also bring in higher accuracy in Weighment. It shall go a long way in redressing the issues related to Weighment.

As per earlier policy, if a second Weighment of wagons was done, the higher of the two reading was considered final for charging or levy of penalty. Now, the policy has been modified to state that second weighment will be considered final for charging. This policy change makes the provision of second weighment meaningful and is expected to redress customers’ grievance in accuracy of Weighment.

Low density commodities like Pet Coke, Met Coke, Chuni and De-oiled cake have also been exempted from mandatory weighment. This is likely to save transit time and increase fluidity, which translate in to cost saving for customers also.