Does IRCTC levy additional charge on users for ticket bookings via UPI? Railway Minister responds
In July, several changes have been introduced in the ticketing system, including revised Tatkal booking timings for agents and making Aadhaar verification mandatory for Tatkal ticket reservation.
During the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh asked Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw whether the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) levies additional charges on digital payments at the rate of Rs 10 for non-AC tickets and Rs 20 for AC tickets, when booked via UPI or other modes. He also questioned the rationale for levying such charges despite the government's push for promotion of cashless economy and usage of UPI.
Responding to this, Vaishnaw said that has provided the facility to book reserved tickets online saving passengers from the trouble of going to reservation counters to book the tickets thus saving travel time and transportation costs.
In a written statement on July 8, the Railway Minister added, 'IRCTC incurs substantial expenditure on providing online ticketing facility and in order to defray the cost incurred in maintenance, upgradation and expansion of ticketing infrastructure, a very nominal convenience fee is levied by IRCTC.'
He also stated that the online ticket booking facility provided by IRCTC is one of the most passenger friendly initiatives of Indian Railways. 'At present about 87% of the reserved tickets are booked online,' the minister noted.
Earlier this year, the IRCTC deactivated over 2.5 crore user IDs to curb malpractices in ticket booking system. 'With a view to curb malpractices in ticket booking system, IRCTC has recently deactivated over 2.5 crore user ids, as their credentials were found to be suspicious during extensive data point analysis,' Vaishnaw said.
Anish Mondal is a business journalist with over nine years of experience. He writes on diverse subjects such as Infrastructure, Railways, Roadways, Aviation, Politics, Market, Parliamentary affairs, Corporate earnings, General and International news etc. ... Read More
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