New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS): Hours after the Congress accused the Central government of hiking railway fares during the festive season, the Indian Railways on Wednesday refuted the claims and termed the news as 'misleading' and 'erroneous'.

Railway Ministry spokesperson D.J. Narain said, "The news regarding hike in rail passenger fares during the festival season is misleading and erroneous."

He said that as per the policy issued in 2015, rail passenger fares and rules for ‘special trains' run during peak demand seasons like festival season, summer holiday season etc. are different and higher than regular mail or express time tabled trains.

He said, "The special charges are fixed as a percentage of fare at the rate of 10 per cent of basic fare of second class and 30 per cent of basic fare for all other classes."

Narain said that it's not that the railways has created something new. "Special trains which run for limited time periods have always had slightly higher fares than routine fares. The Railways still bears a significant amount of financial burden for each passenger that travels," he added.

His remarks came after the Congress on Wednesday slammed the Centre for increasing fares in special festive trains and demanded their immediate roll back.

"We demand that the government should roll back the increased fares immediately and subsidise them further so that rail travel becomes accessible to the common man during the festive season without putting pressure on their pockets," Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said while addressing a press conference earlier in the day.