Pune: Indian Railways is encouraging passengers for cashless payment for booking railway tickets. Now, the ministry has decided to extend the five per cent discount on the base fare of reserved tickets, if payment is made through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), including the BHIM app till June 13, 2019.
The railway’s commercial department has issued a circular on September 10. According to the circular, to make payment through Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) mobile app that functions on UPI method, one can avail five per cent discount on the base fare of the total ticket fare.
Officials from the Pune railway division said that the offer is applicable only for booking tickets at counters and not for online tickets.
“In a move to encourage cashless payment and to reduce the risk of cash handling at ticket counters, railways has begun to introduced Point of Sale (POS) machines at major stations under the Pune railway division to enable payment through debit/credit cards since December 2016 after demonetisation,” said a senior commercial officer deputed at the Pune division office.
For example, if the base fare is Rs 1,000, a passenger will get Rs 50 discount on the ticket, which is reversed to their account.
“During the payment through BHIM, passengers who sign up for UPI payments with their banks will get 20 digits alphanumeric virtual payment address (VPA). The five per cent discount for payment through the BHIM app was introduced in March 2018. Now, the ministry has decided to extend the discount period for the benefit of passengers,” said the officer.
