Railways may hike ticket prices as IRCTC incurs Rs 500 cr loss
Indian Railways is considering to rollback service charge waiver to bridge gap, report says.
Mumbai: Indian Railways is in talks with the Finance Ministry with a plea for rollback of service charge waiver on tickets booked online through Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation, according to a report on Business Standard.
The government put into effect a free insurance scheme in December last year and also decided to withdraw service charge on tickets booked online through IRCTC website.
Report adds that IRCTC will have to bear some Rs 500 crore revenue loss a year which is apart from an additional outgo of Rs 36-40 crore railways has to bear owing to free insurance scheme for train passengers.
Indian Railways has written on several occasions to the Finance Ministry drawing its attention to the loss due to service charge waiver and has also sought compensation from government for loss of revenue.
IRCTC collected Rs 40 for every ticket booked under air conditioned classes category and demanded Rs 20 for every ticket booked in sleeper classes category. IRCTC says this has been a major source of generating revenues for railways.