Train tickets may get costlier as Railways rethinks service charge waiver

Amid IRCTC's Rs 500-cr loss, Railways is learnt to have initiated talks with the finance ministry

Hit by mounting losses, state-run Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Indian Railways are pushing for a partial rollback of the service charges waiver given on train tickets earlier to boost digital transactions after the government's demonetisation move. According to sources, Indian Railways has already initiated talks with the finance ministry over this. 

On November 23 last year, the government had waived the service charge, while a free insurance scheme was also implemented on December 9. An annual waiver of service charge will lead to a loss of about Rs 500 crore on the revenue of IRCTC,