Indian Railways: How a Man’s Fight to Get Rs 35 Refund for Cancelled Tickets Helped Lakhs of Travellers

Sujeet Swami’s five-year-old battle that saw nearly 50 RTI (Right to Information) applications, and a bunch of letters to four different departments of the government finally saw the light of the day when he won it. The Kota-based man, who sought to get a Rs 35 refund from the Railways, finally won it after five years when the Railways approved the same. But this was not the end to the journey, as Swami, in the process, helped another three lakh people get their Rs 35 refund for their train tickets from the Railways.

The Railways has approved Rs 2.43 crore in refunds to 2.98 lakh IRCTC users, said Kota-based engineer Sujeet Swami quoting an RTI reply received by him, a PTI report showed. He said that he had to file around 50 RTI applications and send letters to four government departments to get back the Rs 35 taken from him as service tax even though he cancelled his tickets before the GST regime was implemented.

The 30-year-old also said that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, or IRCTC, in its reply to his RTI query said 2.98 lakh users — many of whom might have brought multiple tickets — would get refund of Rs 35 on each ticket amounting to a total of Rs 2.43 crore.

“My repeated tweets to demand the refund, tagging the PM, Railway minister, Union minister Anurag Thakur, GST Council and the Finance minister played key role in the approval of refund of Rs 35 to 2.98 lakh users,” Swami was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Kota-based man had booked a railway ticket priced at Rs 765 from his city to New Delhi in the Golden Temple Mail in April, 2017 to undertake a journey on July 2, a day after the new GST regime came into force. However, he had cancelled the ticket before the GST regime was implemented following which he received a refund of Rs 665 with a deduction of Rs 100 instead of Rs 65 against the cancellation. He said the extra amount of Rs 35 was charged to him as service tax even though he had cancelled the ticket prior to the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Thus began Swami’s battle, who was told in an RTI reply by the IRCTC that he will not get back the Rs 35. The railway service giant cited the commercial circular number 43 of the Ministry of Railways and said there will be no refund for tickets booked before the implementation of GST and cancelled after implementation.

However, in another RTI reply, it was said that it was later decided that for tickets booked before July 1, 2017, and cancelled, the total amount of service tax charged at the time of booking shall be refunded. “So, a sum of Rs 35 will be refunded,” the IRCTC had said in its reply to Swami’s RTI query. “I, however, received Rs 33 in my bank account on May 1, 2019 with a deduction of Rs 2 as the rounded off value of service tax of Rs 35,” Swami said.

He did not leave the battlefield there, and clung on to his rights to receive the Rs 2 for the next three years. The fruit finally came to him two weeks ago According to Swami, a senior IRCTC official informed him that the “the Railway Board has approved the refund (of Rs 35) to all the users (2.98 lakhs) as the process to deposit refund is underway and all the passengers would gradually receive their refund”.

“The fight was really long with around 50 RTIs, letters to the Railways, IRCTC, Finance ministry and Service Tax department but eventually I am satisfied as all the users with me would receive refund of Rs 35 amounting to over 2.43 crores,” Swami said.

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