Poking a hole in the pocket of the passengers from 1st September, a service charge of Rs 15 per ticket for non-AC classes and Rs 30 for AC classes, including first-class will be levied by IRCTC.
Earlier IRCTC had imposed a service charge of Rs 20 on every non-AC e-ticket and Rs 40 for AC ticket before it was withdrawn three years ago as a demonetization sop.
The railway Board had given its approval to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to restore the charges from passengers booking e-tickets as it plans to come out with the initial public offering of its tourism and catering arm.
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In a letter dated August 30, the Board had said the IRCTC, railways ticketing and tourism arm had made a “detailed case” for the restoration of service charge on booking of the e-ticket and the matter has been examined by the “competent authority”.
Furthermore, the Finance Ministry has said that the scheme was a temporary one and that the railway ministry could begin charging e-tickets.
IRCTC operates www.irctc.co.in, in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with transaction volume averaging at 25 million per month and 7.2 million logins a day.