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Blog Entry# 1658346
Posted: Nov 23 2015 (01:33)
9 Responses
Last Response: Dec 02 2015 (22:49)
9 Responses
Last Response: Dec 02 2015 (22:49)
Hi, I just booked a 3A tkt on irctc cost of which was Rs. 945. What surprised me was the service charge of Rs. 45 which is almost 5% of tkt price. I was also charged an additional Rs. 10 for using my debit card. In today's internet age, online booking is not a special service but a necessity so I dont understand the extra Rs. 60 that I had to pay for booking online. I can understand the charge if irctc was setting up its infrastructure but its so many years now. I am not saying make it free completely but given the scale of online booking, they can surely minimize the service charges! What are the opinion of others?
4 Posts
Ok, I am not saying that service charge should be made zero... Have u heard about economies of scale? When more n more people start using anything, the per unit cost of that thing goes down significantly. As I have written, higher costs can be justified when something is being set up because more capital is needed. In IT systems, once the infrastructure is set up, only operational, maintenance n related man power costs r required. These costs are low compared to costs of setting up like buying servers, paying for programmers etc. Irctc has been providing online booking for more than 10 years now so paying 50-60 rupees extra or even more each time u book a ticket is quite high! And given the scale of online booking n cancellations, such high costs r not justified!
Consumer forum me case dalo
Agar lagta h ki railway galat h and prove this thing ki railway galat h..
And I am also sure ki railway galat h.
Agar lagta h ki railway galat h and prove this thing ki railway galat h..
And I am also sure ki railway galat h.
Let me repeat what I said above - "Whether the charges are justified is a matter of opinion unless somebody has visibility into IRCTC expenses and revenues."
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There are many ways in which initial costs can be kept lesser i.e. capital investments can be reduced in lieu of a higher operating expense. You might want to look into amortization and capital expense allocation strategies followed for large projects. Until and unless somebody knows the exact numbers involved in setting IRCTC up, all statements are speculation and saying that costs now are significantly...
more...
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There are many ways in which initial costs can be kept lesser i.e. capital investments can be reduced in lieu of a higher operating expense. You might want to look into amortization and capital expense allocation strategies followed for large projects. Until and unless somebody knows the exact numbers involved in setting IRCTC up, all statements are speculation and saying that costs now are significantly...
more...
@indiagenie - I appreciate ur opinion. What I was saying is service charges of 5% for booking online is way too high. Look at any sector, nobody charges service fees or a high service charge for online booking. What I was saying is why not reduce the service fees gradually. Irctc service charges has remained constant or increased over the years! And it has been good 10 years+ since irctc was setup and I am sure, that is enough time to recover major part if not full capital cost of setting up its infrastructure! Online railway bookings through irctc have achieved a scale where economy of scale principle well fits into it so the service charge can be reduced if not made 0!