Central Govt wants India to go cash less so that almost all the transactions are traceable and it becomes easy to catch the tax evaders and increase the tax base and reduce the tax rates. Today only 1-2 % people actually pay income tax. There are many people (esp doing business, private consultants etc) avoid income tax thru false declarations. If they can be brought into taxnet by their spendings, the tax base shall widen and the revenue can be generated by having much lower rate of taxes which people shall like to comply with rather than to evade. High tax rates promote tax evasion.
This is a matter of comparision of online transaction thru IRCTC vs. cash transaction at counters. ...
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If online booking is cheaper and more convenient, then it will become more popular.
Looting is a different issue. It is a policy matter of IR to extract maximum from passengers irrespective of the quality of service provided (esp ACIII,AACII,ACC,SL classes)