IRCTC has now decided to impose Extra Charge on ticket booking through other portals like Make My Trip, Paytm and Clear Trip will be costly now.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) says that it will charge a fee of Rs 12 plus taxes on every ticket booked from these sites. IRCTC is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways and handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the parent.
The new fee structure appears to have been introduced with the objective of opening a new revenue stream ahead of its proposed initial public offering.
These companies say that by increasing the fees, they will come in loss and they will become non-competitive compared to the IRCTC’s own website. In the contract of IRCTC, the ‘Look to Book’ ratio is mentioned. This means that at least one ticket booking must be on 70 Enquirer. IRCTC has decided to open its system for service providers and now they can provide customer facilities such as PNR status search and other inquiry services.