Kota Man Fights For 5 Yrs For Rs 35 Refund From Railways, Now It'll Benefit 3 Lakh IRCTC Users

Kota-based man won his five years of battle with the Indian Railways to get a refund of Rs 35, proving true that it's better late than never.

A Kota-based engineer, Sujeet Swami, won his five-year fight to get a refund from the Railways, helping in the process nearly 3 lakh people who have faced something similar. Along with his refund, Railways has approved Rs 2.43 crore in refunds to 2.98 lakh IRCTC users.

According to the report by PTI, Swami revealed that he filed nearly 50 Right to Information (RTI) applications to get his refund.

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He said, "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."

Railways' reply

Swami claimed the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in its reply to his RTI query said 2.98 lakh users -- many of whom might have bought multiple tickets -- would get a 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 roles in the approval of refund of Rs 35 to 2.98 lakh users," Swami told PTI.

He wrote several letters to four government departments in his fight to get back Rs 35 charged as service tax despite cancelling his ticket before the GST regime was implemented.

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How & when the quest began

In 2017, Swami booked a railway ticket from his city to New Delhi in the Golden Temple Mail for July 2. When he cancelled the ticket priced at Rs 765, he received a refund of Rs 665 with a deduction of Rs 100 instead of Rs 65 against the cancellation.

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).

He sent RTI queries to the Railway and the Ministry of Finance. Initially, replying to one of his RTI, IRCTC said that for tickets booked before the implementation of GST and cancelled after implementation, service tax charged at the time of booking shall not be refunded.

However, Swami again received a reply from IRCTC that stated that if a ticket was booked before July 1 or cancelled, the total service tax will be returned.

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He got Rs 2 refunded too

On May 1, 2019, he received a refund of Rs 33 in his bank account with a deduction of Rs 2 as the rounded off the value of service tax. He kept on fighting and it finally yielded results on Friday last week.

Railways told him, "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."

¡°Following the approval of refund of Rs 35 to all users and adding Rs 100 for my five years of struggle, I have donated Rs 535 to Prime Minister Cares Fund,¡± he added.

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