MADURAI: When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) took off as planned on Saturday, it derailed some of the simple plans made by the common man.
A 52-year-old man from Madurai tried to postpone his second class reservation ticket to the next day, but was told that his request could not be considered.
“I requested the railway staff in the counter at Madurai Junction Railway Station to postpone my ticket to the next day on the same train. However, they said the facility was not available because of GST. Only for AC classes, service tax will be collected. For second class, there is no service tax. Hence the problem.”
The affected passenger said he was travelling in second class. “I ended up cancelling my tickets and almost lost 50 per cent of the total fare as the cancellation charge is very high now. If postponement facility is available, passengers will not loose in the way of cancellation charges. Instead, passengers will have to pay only reservation charges for advancing or postponing their reservations.”
The telescopic fare (a system in which the fare decreases in slabs as the length of the journey increases) is also discontinued for all classes.
“The telescopic fare can be availed of for a journey between two stations that are directly connected. Now, this facility is discontinued after the implementation of GST as the fare changes for Express trains,” said a source with the railway.
In a press release, the Madurai division of Southern Railway said a mammoth exercise has been undertaken to modify the integrated application system of Indian Railways for issue of passenger tickets and freight Invoices to capture GST related details. A similar exercise has been undertaken for non-computerised services like wayleave charges and parcels. “Thus on July 1, all railway tickets and invoices issued will be GST compliant,” it said.
In the case of combined return journey tickets for AC and First Class tickets, separate tickets for onward journey and return journey ticket may be issued in all cases. However, for suburban UTS tickets, for which journey originating or terminating station is within the same State, or same UTS issue of combined return journey ticket over suburban section, the existing practice shall continue.
The press release said that circular journey tickets for AC and first class tickets, issue of AC class tickets from UTS counter, issue of cluster tickets from PRS for AC and first class tickets and issue combined tickets issued, except season tickets, shall be discontinued.