E-tickets bought through IRCTC will get more costly as the Indian Railways has decided to restore service fee charges, almost three years after they were withdrawn to promote digital payments, a pet project of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
The Finance Ministry of Railway Board has contended that the scheme of service charges was a temporary one and that the railway ministry could begin charging on e-tickets.
The Railway Board has given its approval to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to restore the mechanism of charging service charge from passengers booking online tickets.
IRCTC saw a 26 per cent drop in Internet ticketing revenue in the financial year 2016-17 after service charges were discontinued, IRCTC used to levy a service charge of Rs 40 for every AC ticket and Rs 20 on every non-AC e-ticket. Now IRCTC will decide either it will keep as the earlier charges or will increase it.
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