quota3 minutes ago
In the case of refund of Rs 2, IRCTC will have to pay Rs 2.43 crore. Engineer and RTI activist fought a long battle for refund of just Rs. This benefited 2.98 lakh users of IRCTC along with them. The matter pertains to Kota.
Sujit Swamy of Kota was fighting for less than Rs 2 in ticket refund for the last 5 years. Sujit, 30, told that in April 2017 he had booked a ticket from Kota to New Delhi in the Golden Temple Mail to travel on July 2. He could not travel due to waiting. He had canceled the ticket costing Rs 765. On cancellation, he got a refund of Rs 665. Sujit says that the railways deducted Rs 100 instead of 65 and charged him an additional amount of Rs 35 as service tax.
Railways has approved 2 crore 43 lakh rupees in refund to 2 lakh 98 thousand IRCTC users.
Sujit sought information in July 2017 by applying RTI regarding the matter. Under which how many more consumers are there, whose service tax was deducted at Rs 35. In response, shocking information emerged. In the information given by the Railways, it was revealed that about 2 lakh 98 thousand consumers were charged Rs 35 per passenger as service tax.
On May 30, a refund of Rs 2 was received by the Railways in Sujit’s account.
Sujit wrote a letter to the Railway Minister, PM and demanded to refund the money of all the consumers. On May 2019, Rs 33 was deposited by IRCTC in Sujit’s bank account. Sujit was not happy with this. He believed that IRCTC had deducted his 35 rupees as service tax. Returned only 33 rupees instead of 35 back. Sujeeth started fighting again to get a refund of Rs.
Sujit again filed an RTI in July 2019 demanding refund of Rs 2 to himself as well as to all the consumers. Sujit used to inquire about the status of refund through RTI every two months. Sujit’s matter reached the Finance Commissioner and Secretary, Ministry of Railways, Government of India, Deputy Director, Passenger Marketing, Railway Board, IRCTC, Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Revenue) Department and the GST Council.
Sujit tweeted taking a dig at PM Narendra Modi, Minister Anurag Thakur, Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister. Recently, on May 27, Sujit got a call from an IRCTC official. He informed about the approval of the refund of all the consumers by the Railway Board. Also asked for information about Sujit’s bank account. On May 30, a refund of Rs 2 was received by the Railways in Sujit’s account. After which Sujit transferred Rs 535 to the PM Care Fund to thank him after the completion of the five-year struggle.