Railway Ministry Withdraws Convenience Fee from IRCTC !

The Ministry of Railways has conveyed its decision to share the revenue earned from convenience fee collected by IRCTC in the ratio of 50:50 from November 1. In what has come as a negative surprise for the investors of IRCTC, the government has asked the Indian Railways' online ticketing arm to share half of its convenience fee from internet booking with it. The Ministry of Railways has through a letter asked Indian Railways Catering and Transportation Corporation to share 50 per cent of the revenue from the convenience fee with it. So far, IRCTC kept 100 per cent of the convenience fee it charged customers for providing various services with itself. As per IRCTC’s website, income from the convenience fee is recognized on the basis of the value of the convenience fee earned on the tickets booked by domestic customers through its website. The state-owned IRCTC is the only firm authorised to manage food services on trains and has a monopoly in the online ticketing and catering services for the Indian Railways. Experts believe that this spark a near 50 per cent cut in the earnings of IRCTC since the majority of its revenues come from internet ticketing services.