Justify the charge

Whether railway authorities should charge 20 percent of the cost of a returned train ticket has become an issue of concern.

A Beijing lawyer put forward an application to National Development and Reform and Commission (NDRC) urging it to cancel the charge that he believes unreasonable and unfair. The answer from NDRC is ambiguous - the charge is unreasonable if the returned ticket is sold, but it is legally valid for the railway to charge the fee as there are chances that the returned tickets cannot be sold.

But NDRC urges the railway to revise its policy of charging passengers who return their tickets. The message is clear that it is unreasonable and unfair for the railway to charge 20 percent of a railway ticket price at any time and under any condition.

It is quite likely that the railway may suffer losses when a ticket is returned and cannot be sold again. But what if the returned ticket is sold? Then the railway has no reason to keep the 20 percent ticket charge from a passenger, who has never taken the train. What makes the debate complicated is the reality that no one can tell whether returned tickets can be sold or not or what percentage of them will be sold.

Yet, it remains a question for the railway to answer - why is it 20 percent of a ticket charge for a passenger to pay for returning the ticket. Has the railway ever calculated how much money it would usually lose annually from the tickets passengers have returned?

If it has not, passengers have enough reason to believe that the railway makes money rather than loses it from charging passengers for canceling their trips and returning their tickets.

Yes, as NDRC says in its answer to the lawyer, a passenger establishes a contract relationship with the railway once he buys a train ticket, and it is a unilateral action to violate the contract when the passenger cancels his or her trip and asks for a refund for an unused ticket.

But the railway in a monopoly position has never had a hearing about how much it should charge for a passenger to return his or her ticket. So the 20 percent of a train ticket price is anything but a fair treaty attached to the contract.

An article of the law on protection of consumers' right and interest stipulates that any business should never make decisions in any form unfair to consumers. The unilateral charge of 20 percent of a train ticket price for a ticket returned obviously violates this article.

What consumers need is a convincing explanation why the fee is charged and whether the percentage it charges is fair.

As one of the cases challenging the arrogance and arbitrariness of monopolized businesses, its significance goes far beyond its particular appeal.

(China Daily 07/11/2008 page8)