Understanding the IRCTC Ticket

Do we feel perturbed after we have booked an e-ticket on IRCTC to find :

• The fare on the ticket printout is different from the base fare and 
• The amount debited in Credit/Debit card /Net Banking is different from the printed fare

I had the misery of booking several tickets in a month and looking down a barrel of losses, decided to  understand where is the money gets lost. This post is to give an insight to the charges that are levied to the base fare of a ticket. 

Ticket Break up:

The components of an e-ticket are:

1. Base Fare
2. IRCTC Service Charge based on the class of travel
3. Service Tax on the IRCTC Service Charge @ 12.36%
4. Point 1-3 constitutes the printed fare in the e-ticket
5. Bank Service charge- very much at 1.8% 
6. And a Service tax on this 1.8% Service charge which roughly means, the bank charges 2.02% on the printed fare and this is what reflects in the statements

IRCTC Service Charge:

Based on the class of travel IRCTC charges a Service charge as under per ticket and not per passenger:

Hence we see these charges in the e-Ticket as under (sample from a 2S booked ticket): 

Bank Service Charges and Tax:

IRCTC booking is a breeze as we have the option to pay sitting at home/office/or travel. But there is a cost involved. The first one is the IRCTC charges and the next one is the bank charges also called transaction charges. Various banks have various charges ranging from 1.8% to INR 10 and an addition of service tax to the above amount.  

Now these are the charges which we see only when the statement of account is checked. There is a comprehensive list of charges in the IRCTC website in the page where the payment options are selected. My recommendations on where the charges can be saved are given in the above table for the available options. 

Typically most of the users are either with Credit card from private banks or net banking. Most of the us are charged at the maximum levels of 1.8% + Service Tax. This works out to be 2.02 % as mentioned in point 6 on the Ticket Break up section. 

Consolidated fare break up:

Taking a sample base fare at INR 750, break up of charges for both 2nd Sitting (2S)/ Sleeper and AC Chair Car (CC) and above are given in the table to left. 

With this post, I wish to inform that as convenience comes at a price. For someone who travels once in a year, these charges are not much but for a very frequent traveler, this will pinch the pocket. Needless to say if cancellations come in, loss of money is extremely high which I shall discuss in the next post. 

Happy travelling!!!

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