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Did you know that the Railways earns over Rs 1,000 crore through cancellations alone? However, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament in a written reply about how much the Railways earns from cancellations. A few years ago, the Railways had revealed this information in an RTI reply.
The Railway sells two types of tickets: confirmed and waiting list (or RAC) tickets. When reservation charts are prepared, several passengers remain on the waiting list if they do not get confirmed tickets. If tickets are booked through the IRCTC website, waiting list tickets are automatically cancelled. However, if the tickets are issued at the reservation window, the passenger must cancel them manually.
As per the rules of Railways, a passenger will have to pay reservation charges while cancelling the tickets. If a passenger cancels a confirmed ticket before 48 hours of train departure, the passenger will have to pay a flat charge. The charges for AC/Executive class is Rs 240 , AC 2 tier.First class is Rs 200, AC 3 Tier/ AC Chair car,/ AC 3 Economy is Rs 180 and for sleeper and second class is Rs 60. IRCTC has no proprietorship in these charges.
If a passenger cancels a confirmed ticket before 48 hours of train departure, he or she will have to pay more charges. As per rules, if the cancellation is done between 12 to 48 hours of train departure, 25 % of ticket fare will be deducted. And if the cancellation is done before 12 hours of train departure, 50% of ticket fare will be slashed.
The railway has already clarified the deduction of cancellation charge is per passenger ticket. For example, if a person booked six tickets in the second AC Tier and cancels all six tickets, he will have to pay Rs 1200.
If the ticket was purchased from the Railway ticket window, then the passenger will be refunded with deduction as per rulings, but if a ticket was issued through IRCTC , then the passenger will have to also pay convenience fee.
The railway minister informed that the department does not have a separate account of cancellation earnings. But Centre for Railway Information Centre (CRIS) informed that Railways had earned Rs 9000 crore through cancellation between 2017-2020.
The IRCTC charges convenience fee along with cancellation charges is also an earning of the company. While replying to the query, the minister had informed the Parliament on February 8, 2023 that through convenience fee , the railway earned Rs 352.33 crore in 2019-20, Rs 299.17 crore in 2020-21, Rs 694.08 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 604. 40 crore in 2022-23.
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