The Railways has generated a record-high revenue of over Rs 1900 crore from the cancellation of e-tickets also realizing some fixed amounts as convenience fee. The cancellation or clearage charge is levied by railway on cancellation of ticket as per Railway Passengers Rule 2015 on both e-tickets and the tickets issued by the computerized Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters.
According to a recent written reply of railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to a Parliament question, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) realizes convenience fee from the passengers, who book online reserved e-tickets through IRCTC e-ticketing platform. A total of Rs 1,949.98 crore has been generated by the railway from the cancellations of tickets including the e-tickets between 2019-2020 and 2022-2023(till December). The railway minister informed the House that the railway had generated the highest revenue of Rs 694.08 crore in the financial year of 2021-22 from the cancellations of both the counter and e-ticket. In the outgoing financial year of 2022-23(till December), the railway has generated Rs 604.40 crore from the cancellations.
According to the railway minister's reply, the railway charges Rs 30 on the ticket of air-conditioned class in case the ticket is booked by using net banking or debit-credit card per ticket and Rs 20 per ticket if booked through UPI. For non-air conditioned classes, the railway charges of Rs 15 per ticket booked through the Net banking or debit or credit card and Rs 10 per ticket for the ones booked using UPA. He informed the house that the convenience fee is not charged to passengers on the cancellation of tickets. The cancellation or convenience charges are collected by IRCTC based on instructions issued by railways from time to time.
At present, the railway has a capacity of booking around 25,000 tickets per minute. "The target is to upgrade it to 2.25 lakh per minute and to ensure this technological improvement are being made and software is added", the Railway minister had recently told the media at briefing held over allocations in the recent budget. The minister has also said that the railway will also work to enhance the capacity for attending enquires from 40,000 enquiries per minute now to 4 lakh per minute in coming days.