About 17 per cent of railway tickets were booked through cashless modes of payment during the financial year 2017-2018, the government said. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain said passengers are using different e-payment modes like credit/debit cards and net banking to pay for their tickets.
“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 said.
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.
The government had waived off service charges on railway tickets after demonetisation in November last, in a bid to encourage digital payments. The service charges ranged from Rs 20 to Rs 40 per ticket.
