Mr Prakash member traffic of Indian Railway Board on Thursday indicated that Railways may reduce freight charges on iron ore export traffic even further.
Mr Prakash said that “Railways has reduced freight charges for certain segments of iron ore export traffic and domestic container traffic in the last few months. Further reductions are also likely.”
Defending the decision to hike cement and coal freight charges despite a rollback in diesel charges, the Indian Railways has said that diesel is just one of the several inputs for the railways. Moreover, the decision to increase freight charges for cement and coal was notified on November 28, much before the diesel price reduction was announced, he said that “The cost of several inputs such as steel, cement and labor has gone up in the last few years and the railways has not increased freight charges by similar extent.”
This comes on the heels of a statement by Mr Kamal Nath Union Commerce Minister that the Government is considering a stimulus package for exports.