Indicating a rise in the usage of e-payments, about 17 per cent of the railway tickets were booked using digital payment modes in 2017-18.
“Passengers are using different e-payment modes like credit/debit cards and net banking to pay for their tickets,” said Rajen Gohain, Minister of State for Railways, in a reply to a question projected to him in Lok Sabha.
“Rail users have been provided the option to book tickets by making payments through various banks/payment providers including Paytm as an aggregator. During the financial year 2017-2018 (up to June 2017), approximately 17 per cent of total tickets, both reserved and unreserved, were booked through various cashless modes of payment,” he explained.
Indian railways have been extensively promoting the usage of digital payments in its several service. These initiatives are taken in sync with the “Digital India” campaign.
“The national transporter has been promoting different modes of cashless transactions like Paytm, Mobikwik, mRupee, IRCTC eWallet, PayU, Freecharge, JIO Money, Ola money etc,” he said.
In a bid to encourage digital payments, the central government had even waived off service charges on railway tickets after demonetisation last year. The service charges ranged from Rs 20 to Rs 40 per ticket.
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