Title - No service charge on online ticket bookings till March next year

Indian railways has decided to not charge service tax till March 2018. This will allow passengers to book their online tickets free of service charge till March next year.

After demonetisation last year in November, government waived off service charge on bookings of online tickets which was seen as a move to encourage digital transaction. Earlier too government extended the date of service charge waiver two times. IRCTC normally charge rupees 20 to 40 as a service tax per online ticket booking.

Senior railway officials say that almost 33 per cent of the IRCTC revenue comes from the service charge collected on online 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.