The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe into alleged abuse of dominant position by Indian Railways and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in providing various services like booking e-tickets, appointment of booking agents, compulsorily charging for catering facility in Rajdhani & other trains levying premium charges for calls made to 139.
On a petition filed by three Ranchi residents, Sharad Kumar Jhunjhunwala, Amit Chaudhary and Shiv Shankar Das, the Commission, in a recent order, has said that prima facie, it is a case of contravention of the provisions of the Competition Act. The Director General (DG) of the six-member Commission has been asked to complete the investigation within a period of 60 days. The CCI has been set up to ensure fair competition in the economy in order to provide a 'level playing field' to the producers and make the markets work for the welfare of the consumers.
The petitioners have alleged that IRCTC is charging a premium on the e-ticket price and earning huge profits. IRCTC provides only the facility for transacting with Indian Railways' PRS System through internet.
For this facility, service charge is charged over and above the normal ticket price. In addition to above mentioned charges, if ticket is booked through IRCTC authorized agents, an extra agent service charge, is also levied. Then there is a payment gateway charges for making online payment to purchase e-tickets. Very recently Railway Group has started a new e-Wallet scheme to address the problem of failed transactions. However, this scheme has been kept optional and under the scheme many unfair conditions including payment of transaction fee has been imposed
The service charge imposed on e-Tickets is non-refundable, even if the passenger needs to cancel the ticket. The service charge is an extra-burden on the passenger over and above the cancelation charges imposed as per Railway rules. "Under Tatkal quota, a huge inventory of available tickets is hoarded, based on type of train and class of travel. The Tatkal quota tickets are sold at huge premium of upto Rs.400 over and above the normal price," they said.
"The Railway Group has limited the availability of IRCTC agents by charging unreasonable fees for appointment as agents. The one-time fee of Rs 20,000 and annual fee of Rs 5,000 is prohibitive for people desirous of becoming agents." "long-term contracts for food vendors at railway stations: There is usually a single food court monopoly at the larger stations, created by the Railways itself. There is effectively no competition for these food courts and people who cannot afford the expensive meals at these outlets have no other alternative," the petitioners said.