No service charge on online ticket bookings till March 2018: Railways

New Delhi: In a good news for the rail passengers, the Railways ministry has decided not to charge any service charge on online ticket booking till March 2018.

The Centre had allowed service charge exemption on e-ticketing after demonetisation came into effect on November 8, 2016, aiming to promote digital modes of payments. The facility had later been extended till June 30 and then September 30.

It is to be mentioned that service charges on booking rail tickets online through IRCTC range from Rs 20 to Rs 40 on each ticket.

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According to the senior Railways officials, about 33 per cent of the IRCTC revenues comes from the service charge collected through online ticket bookings. As per the revenue collection of the last financial year, about Rs 540 crore of IRCTC's revenue of over Rs 1,500 crore came from ticket bookings.

A total of around Rs 184 crore has not been realised from passengers on account of service charge and service tax thereon on reserved tickets booked online from November 23, 2016 to February 28, 2017, according to railways data.