The Hindu Business Line : Rlys for lower ATM charges for tickets

In order to bring down the total amount that a passenger would pay for booking train tickets using ATMs, the Railways is in talks with several banks to lower the charges for accessing ATMs for ticket booking.

Firstly, cardholders of all banks would be able to book e-tickets using the ATMs of the seven banks already in agreement with the Railways to set up ATMs at stations, provided their respective banks have ATM sharing agreements with the seven.

The seven are State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank.

And if backed by an ATM sharing agreement, users of one bank would be required to pay extra for ATM facilities of another bank for ticket booking.

Extra charge

The extra amount payable by a user per ticket in such cases could vary from Rs 17 to Rs 25 or even Rs 50, depending on the inter-bank agreement.

The Railways' perspective is that the consumer should not have to pay hefty extra charges for e-ticket booking through ATMs. "Users would anyway have to pay Rs 25 (for second and sleeper class only) or Rs 40 per e-ticket booking.

Over and above, they face transaction charges. Some banks charge Rs 10-15 per transaction, others 1.8-2.8 per cent of total ticket value, and yet others do not charge at all. With the current inter-bank ATM access charges, the cost per ticket could go up by over Rs 100," pointed out a senior Railway official.

For example, if a PNB debit card user gets his own bank ATM on a railway station, then he can book a ticket by paying e-ticket charges and service tax only.

But, if the card user were to use an Indian Bank ATM, he would have to shell out about Rs 17 extra, and about Rs 20-21 for using an SBI ATM, explained Mr K.S. Bajwa, General Manager, PNB. If a BoB, Andhra Bank or Dena Bank user were to use a PNB ATM for booking tickets, they would have to pay about Rs 22 per transaction, he added.

Standarised charge

"It is desirable that banks have a low, standardised service charge for ticket bookings across their ATM network," said the Railway official.

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