Railways To Restore Service Charges On E-Tickets From 1 September: IRCTC To Charge Rs 15 On Non-AC, Rs 30 on AC Class

Indian Railways will start to levy a service charge of Rs 15 for every non-AC class and Rs 30 for every AC class and First Class tickets purchased via the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) from 1 September, The New Indian Express reports.

According to an order, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) will be applicable separately. Service charges for online booking were withdrawn three years ago to promote digital payments, before which they used to levy a service charge of Rs 20 on every non-AC ticket and Rs 40 for every AC ticket.

The Railway Board, earlier in the month had approved for the IRCTC to bring back charging service charge from passengers booking train tickets online.

In the order on 30 August, the Board told IRCTC had made a "detailed case" to restore the service charge on booking e-tickets, following which the matter was examined by the "competent authority". The Finance Ministry also contented that the earlier wave off was a temporary one.

According to officials, once the service charges were stopped, the railways ticketing and tourism arm- IRCTC witnessed a 26 per cent drop in internet ticketing revenue in the FY 2016-17.