Be ready to spend more to book train tickets online

Soon, you might need to shell out more money for booking train tickets online. As per the latest reports, the Indian Railways might likely restart adding service charges for booking e-tickets, which was earlier withdrawn to promote digital transactions.
Reportedly, service charge for sleeper class was INR 20, and INR 40 for AC compartment seats. Earlier, the said service charge for e-tickets existed till November 2016, i.e., just before demonetisation, the money being used by the IRCTC to fund the e-ticketing system. As per the latest reports, the Indian Railways has been advised to discontinue the service by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which has promised to reimburse the operation cost of the railways.

The directive to not levy service charge was initially supposed to be till June 2017, which was later extended multiple times, and continued till date. The MoF informed the railways to discontinue the said arrangement, and stated that it was a temporary measure in special context for a limited period of time.
While people are of the view that the step is totally against the interest of the passengers, it is expected that the railways should bear the service charge, railway officials think otherwise. The railway officials stated that the Indian Railways has been incurring losses despite the MoF reimbursing a certain amount in lieu of the exemption.
The railway officials also mentioned that restoring the service will help generate around 200 crores for railways, which will be used to meet the escalating demands for maintaining the IRCTC website.