In a relief to rail passengers, tickets booked through online would continue to be exempted from service charges till March 2018.
Post-demonetization, the Government had waived service charges on e-tickets through IRCTC with a view to encourage digital transactions till June 30th. The date was further extended till 30th September.
Service charges on booking train tickets online through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) range from Rs 20 to Rs 40 per ticket.
The Railway Board, in a letter addressed to the IRCTC, directed that the benefit must be extended till March 2018.
Reportedly, around 33% of the IRCTC revenue comes from the service charge collected on online bookings.
As per the revenue collection of the last financial year, about Rs 540 crore of IRCTC’s revenue of over Rs1,500 crore came from ticket bookings. An amount of around Rs 184 crore has not been realized from passengers on account of service charge and service tax thereon on reserved tickets booked online from 23 November 2016 to 28 February 2017, according to railways data.
