"Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges will not be levied on passengers for booking railway tickets (at the railway ticketing counters as well as through IRCTC ticketing website) on payment made through Debit Cards for a transaction value up to Rs 1 lakh," said the public transporter in a statement.
Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, has already issued instructions to banks in this regard.
The Railways also hopes to see a boost in digital and cashless transactions following the move.
"Ministry of Railways had informed Department of Expenditure that all proceeds from sale of tickets through IRCTC website/counters go to Consolidated Fund of India through Ministry of Railways and such transactions should be considered as Government receipts. The benefits on Government transactions must be passed on to the public, and they should not face MDR charges while making payments to Government," read the statement.
The public transporter has also initiated a facility for printing ticket details in regional languages on unreserved tickets issued through Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) with the first such language being Kannada.
The facility was under testing at Mysuru, Bengaluru and Hubballi stations of South Western Railway.