Traveling via trains can get cheaper if you’re paying for your tickets via any standard Unified Payments Service (UPI) or Bharat Interface for money (BHIM) applications. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) plans to reduce charges on train ticket reservations for the customers who are paying through UPI/BHIM applications like Paytm, PhonePe or Google Pay.
A convenience fee of ₹10 is charged per train ticket for non-AC class passengers. For tickets in AC classes, including the first class, the convenience fee is ₹20, per IRCTC. The new charges are rolled out soon, confirms a railway official.
Currently, IRCTC has charged a convenience fee of INR 15 for each non-AC e-ticket and INR 30 for each AC class ticket if the payments are made through any BHIM or UPI applications.
To promote online payments within the country, Indian Railways has recently launched a number of initiatives. Earlier, IRCTC has declared a lucky draw scheme where 1,000 lucky customers can get a cashback of ₹500 if they pay through UPI or BHIM applications while booking tickets.
Customers are eligible for a five-hitter discount if they’re paying through UPI/BHIM applications at railway reserved counters. If you book a ticket of ₹100 or above from the reserved counter at railway stations, you’ll get a maximum discount of ₹50. The offer is valid until June 12, 2020. The convenience fee on online tickets bought through IRCTC was additionally waived 3 years ago to promote digital transactions.
IRCTC recently restored convenience fee charges on e-tickets booked via its official website. starting from September 1, IRCTC is charging ₹15 per ticket as a convenience fee for non-AC classes. For tickets in AC classes, a charge of ₹30 is levied per ticket. the existing e-ticketing platform of IRCTC, also known as the next Generation E-Ticketing system (NGeT), has the capability to book 7,200 tickets in every minute.
In August, the Railway board gave its approval to restore the convenience charges when IRCTC witnessed the 26th drop-in online ticketing revenue in the financial year 2016-17.
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