No service fee for rail tickets booked through IRCTC

To promote digital transactions, the service charge on e-tickets booked through IRCTC has been withdrawn. Announcing this in the General Budget, Finance Minster Arun Jaitley said cashless reservations have gone up from 58% to 68%.

The government had earlier announced the withdrawal of services charges from November 8 to March 31, 2017, following demonetisation.  Now the government wants  to permanently withdraw service charges.

The minister also said the Railways will implement end to end integrated transport solutions for select commodities through partnership with logistics players, who would provide both front and back end connectivity.

Rolling stocks will be customised to transport perishable goods, especially agricultural products. As part of accounting reforms, accrual-based financial statements will be rolled out by March 2019, Jaitley said.

Tariff of the Railways would be fixed, taking into consideration costs, quality of service, social obligations and competition from other forms of transport, the minister added.