INDIA TRAVEL AGENTS ASKING INDIAN RAILWAYS TO RELAX FINANCIAL TERMS FOR GIVING DIRECT TICKET BOOKING TERMINAL AS AT PRESENT THEY NEED TO PAY (1) RS.5 LAKHS NON REFUNDABLE REGISTRATION FEES(2)RS.6 LAKHS PER TERMINAL ANNUAL CHARGES(3)BANK GUARANTEE BETWEEN RS.2-5 LAKHS DEPENDING ON NUMBER OF TERMINALS AND NOT ONLY THIS THEY NEED SHARE 25% OF RESERVED SEATS CHARGES WITH RAILWAY New Delhi, September 28: Travel agents want the Indian Railways to relax the financial terms of a scheme that allows them to set up ticket booking facilities with direct access to the seat reservation database. Access Recently, the Railways firmed up a policy, called Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK), that will allow rail travel agents to book tickets by setting up such terminals. At present, travel agents can access the rail passenger reservation system to book tickets only through the servers of IRCTC, the Railways’ public sector subsidiary that front-ends online booking. Railway rules prohibit ticket booking agents from physically going to the reservation counters. This was done to de-clog the counter from travel agents and make these available only for passengers. According to YTSK policy, agents have to pay a one-time, non-refundable registration fee of ₹5 lakh. Additionally, the licensees have to pay accessing charges at ₹1.6 lakh a terminal every year to the passenger reservation system. This also involves a refundable security deposit or bank guarantee of ₹2-5 lakh, which varies according to the number of terminals. To top this, the Railways has said that service providers would have to share 25 per cent of their charges on reserved tickets with the Railways, which are capped at ₹30 and ₹40 for non-AC and AC reserved tickets. There is no revenue share for unreserved tickets, where the Railways allows a commission of ₹1. Plea for waiver Several travel agencies feel that the YTSK fees are steep. RS Aggarwal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Rail Travellers Service Agents, said the policy favours agents with deep pockets and sought a waiver of ₹5 lakh non-refundable fee and slashing of terminal access charges to ₹25,000. Meanwhile, Railway officials said the policy was finalised after discussions with travel agents and was aimed at getting only serious players as YTSK. There are enquires from various Railways on the policy. Though more and more tickets are being booked online of late, about 50 per cent of reserved tickets are still sold offline.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 03:43:18 +0000
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