E-tickets purchased through IRCTC will now become more expensive as the Indian Railways has decided to bring back service fee charges. The decision comes almost 3 years after they were withdrawn to endorse digital payments, a pet project of PM Narendra Modi’s government.
As per latest information, the Railway Board has given its approval to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC to reinstate the mechanism of charging service charge from people booking online tickets.
In a letter, the Railway Board said that the IRCTC, railways ticketing & tourism arm, had prepared a "detailed case" for the reinstatement of service charge on booking of e-tickets & the issue has been examined by the "competent authority".
It said the Finance Ministry has asserted that the plan of waiving of service charges was a provisional one and the railway ministry will soon begin charging e-tickets.
The letter also stated that "Taking into consideration the advice given by the Finance Ministry, the competent authority has decided that IRCTC can take a suitable decision on the imposition or restoration of convenience fee or service charges & the quantum to be levied".
Officials in the ministry told that after service charges were removed, IRCTC saw a 26% drop in Internet ticketing revenue in FY 2016-17.
It must be noted that IRCTC used to impose a service charge of Rs 20 on every non-AC e ticket & Rs 40 for every AC ticket.
Now the IRCTC has to decide whether it will keep the earlier rates or increase it.
