Booking IRCTC train tickets from MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Paytm, ClearTrip? Start worrying

Booking tickets online either for trains or airlines to avoid queues at the airport or Indian Railways stations has become a habit for most people. Although there are official websites available to book tickets, some sections of citizens still use portals like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Paytm and ClearTrip because of the discounts they offer on your purchase of tickets. Guess what! Now booking train tickets from these travel and tourism websites will become expensive! Why? Because the Indian Railways catering service provider IRCTC has now decided to charge you extra Rs 12 plus taxes for booking train tickets on MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Paytm and ClearTrip. 

According to Times of India, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has said it will charge a fee of Rs 12 plus taxes on every ticket booked from service providers. 

Earlier, IRCTC, which is the online portal and handler of catering, tourism and ticket operations of Indian Railways, would generally charge flat annual maintenance charges.

Reportedly, 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 (IPO). 

This new move can be indicated to IRCTC ongoing measures for boosting train revenue. The Indian Railways have also recently enhanced the entire website making ticket booking operation as easy as possible - it can be done with just a few clicks. 

Services providers told TOI, hiking the fees is not an option as this would then make them uncompetitive vis-à-vis IRCTC’s own booking site. Also, the IRCTC contract prescribes a ‘look to book’ ratio 1:70. What this means is that there should be at least one ticket booking for seventy enquiries. With IRCTC opening its systems to service providers, they can offer customers facilities such as PNR status search and other inquiry facilities. If the bookings do not keep up with the ‘look to book’ ratio of 1:70, the service providers will have to pay 25 paise for every enquiry. 

Additionally, apart from maintenance charges IRCTC will reportedly charge Rs 5 for display of advertisements and Rs 15 for cashback offers or for clubbing rickets sales with third-party products and services. Rs 25 per ticket will charged in case of cross-selling of any third party products.