Refund Facilities on Cancellation of Tickets

Refund Facilities on Cancellation of Tickets

Refund Of Cancelled Tickets

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2271
TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2023

REFUND OF CANCELLED TICKETS

SHRI VIJAY KUMAR:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has any alternate plans for the passengers of mail and express trains who have to travel by sitting near the toilet door on waiting ticket, if so, the details thereof;

(b) the reasons for issuing so many waiting list tickets by the Indian Railways, if it does not have the capacity to confirm the same;

(c) whether after the automatic cancellation of an online ticket, often the money for the online waiting ticket is not refunded unless a complaint is registered through the customer care, if so, the reasons therefor;

(d) whether many a times money gets deducted from the account while booking a ticket online but the ticket is not booked and that money is refunded only after a week;

(e) if so, the options available to the passengers if they have limited money and the journey is unavoidable; and

(f) the reasons for discontinuing a special bogie for the Indian Army in the trains?

ANSWER: MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW

(a) to (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2271 BY SHRI VIJAY KUMAR TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 02.08.2023 REGARDING REFUND OF CANCELLED TICKETS.

(a) & (b): On Indian Railways, occupancy pattern of trains is not uniform throughout the year and it varies over lean and peak periods. During peak rush periods, the occupancy of the trains especially on popular routes remains full whereas during lean period and on less popular routes, there is sub optimal utilization. Waiting list tickets are issued to take care of reserved accommodation going vacant against cancellation of confirmed accommodation, avoid chances of passengers being turned away by booking clerks on account of accommodation being exhausted and to help Railways to assess the demand pattern. Waiting list position of the trains running on Indian Railways is monitored on regular basis and to cater to additional demand, load of existing trains are augmented, special trains are run, new trains are introduced, frequency of existing trains is increased etc. subject to operational feasibility.

(c): As soon as the ticket, in which status of all the passengers is on waiting list at the time of preparation of first reservation charts, is automatically cancelled, auto refund is initiated and refund is advised to the bank on the next day.

(d): If money is debited and ticket is not booked, automatic refund process is initiated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on the following day. Refund amount is advised to the Payment Gateway / bank through which booking amount was received. Normally bank takes time to process refund as per the following mode of transaction-

• For Net banking / Wallet / Cash Card transaction 3-4 business days.
• For Credit card / Debit card transaction 6-7 business days.

(e): Passenger can avail Book Now Pay Later option available in Mobile App and EMI option available in the website as payment option.

(f): Instructions already available on this account have been reiterated to all zonal Railways that expeditious clearance of police, paramilitary and armed forces should be ensured by attaching additional coach / coaches to trains and / or by earmarking train service second class coach(es), subject to feasibility, so long as they hold valid travel authority.

Refund Of Cancelled Tickets in Lok Sabha Q & A In PDF Download – Click Here

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 6031

ANSWERED ON: 04.04.2018

Refund Facilities on Cancellation of Tickets

SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:-

(a) the details of different avenues available for a passenger to avail refund facilities on cancellation of tickets falling under different categories;

(b) the details of refund mechanism and policy of the railways in case of failure on account of online glitches and offline unavailability of the cancellation services;

(c) whether there is any scope for flexibility for the convenience of the passengers in case there is unavailability of services on the part of railways; and

(d) if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.6031 BY SHRI SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 04.04.2018 REGARDING REFUND FACILITIES ON CANCELLATION OF TICKETS

(a): The details of different avenues available for a passenger to get refund of fare on cancellation of tickets as per Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015 are as under:-

(i). Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counter tickets/Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) tickets on surrendering of original ticket are cancelled and amount due is refunded across the reservation/booking counters, within the prescribed time limit.

(ii). E-ticket is cancelled/ Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) filed online on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website within the prescribed time limit. The refund amount is credited to the account from where the payment for the booking of ticket has been made.

(iii). In exceptional circumstances as per Refund Rule, TDR can be filed for getting refund beyond prescribed time limit.

(iv). PRS counter tickets can also be cancelled through IRCTC website (www.irctc.co.in) or through 139 and refund amount can be collected across the reservation/booking counters on surrendering of original tickets within the prescribed time limit.

(v). Station masters of nominated stations have powers to allow cancellation of tickets and grant refund of fare in exceptional circumstances.

(b): As per Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015, the e-tickets booked through IRCTC website are cancelled/TDR filed through the IRCTC website only within the prescribed time limit. In exceptional circumstances, passenger may approach to IRCTC or Office of Chief Commercial Managers(Refund) of concerned zonal Railways for grant of refund. In case payment is deducted and the Passenger Name Record (PNR)/ticket is not issued due to technical reasons, the refund is processed by IRCTC automatically on the following day of the transaction made by user after confirmation through the file of transaction from bank and PNR generation from PRS.

(c) & (d): All cancellation and refund of fare is governed by Notification dated 4th Nov., 2015 as Railway Passengers (Cancellation of Tickets and Refund of Fares) Rules, 2015. In exceptional circumstances there is already provision for refund of fare by Chief Commercial Managers (Refund) of concerned zonal Railways. Also, Station Managers of nominated stations of zonal Railways have been authorized to grant refund of fare on counter tickets in exceptional circumstances.

Further to the provision indicated in reply at (a) above, to facilitate the passengers PRS counter tickets are also cancelled at relatively smaller stations wherever PRS booking facility is available throughout the day and refund is granted beyond the working hours of PRS counters/current counters.

Also to facilitate e-tickets passengers in case of cancellation of trains, automatic cancellation is done and refund amount due is credited in the account from which the booking transaction took place. Cancellation or Filing of online TDR is not required in such cases.