Railways tighten ticket cash refund procedure

Railways tighten ticket cash refund procedure

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Nov 17, 2016: It was announced that Indian Railways, which had earlier restricted the refund amount on cancelled tickets booked between November 9 and 15 beyond Rs. 10,000 through cheque or ECS, has now reduced the cap to Rs. 5,000.

As the demonetisation scheme had allowed booking railway tickets using Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banned notes, initially for two days, bookings saw a sudden spurt across the country.

The modus operandi appeared to be to book the tickets with outlawed currency and get the amount refunded with legal tender after cancelling it. Realising the glitch, the Ministry of Railways on November 10 issued a circular cap on cash refund to Rs. 10,000. Refunds beyond Rs. 10,000 would be made only through cheque or ECS, the circular had said.

Fresh Regulation :   Since the window to tender outlawed currencies was extended till November 24, the Ministry, on Tuesday, issued a fresh circular. The cap now has been reduced to Rs. 5,000, after which refunds would be made through banking channels only, the circular said. It also said such tickets may be refunded through filing of ticket deposit receipt (TDR) only on surrendering of original ticket.