Sujit Swamy’s five-year-old battle with nearly 50 RTI (right to information) applications and a bunch of letters written to four different departments of the government finally saw the light of the day when he won it. The person resident of Kota, who had demanded a refund of Rs.35 from railway, finally won it five years later when the Railways approved it. But that was not the end of the journey, as Swamy, in the process, helped another three lakh people to get their refund of Rs 35. rail ticket by railway.
Kota engineer Sujit Swamy, quoting an RTI reply received by him, said that the Railways has sanctioned Rs 2.43 crore in refunds to 2.98 lakh IRCTC users, a PTI report showed. He said he had to withdraw Rs 35 charged from him as service tax for filing around 50 RTI applications and sending letters to four government departments, even though he had canceled his tickets before the implementation of the GST regime.
The 30-year-old also said that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, or IRCTC, in response to its RTI query, said that 2.98 lakh users – many of whom would have brought multiple tickets – would get a refund of Rs 35 on each ticket. Altogether Rs 2.43 crore.
Swamy was quoted as saying, “My repeated tweets demanding refund, tagging PM, Railway Minister, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, GST Council and Finance Minister in approval of refunds of 35 to 2.98 lakh users played an important role.” PTI.
This person from Kota had booked a railway ticket from his city to New Delhi worth Rs 765 in the Golden Temple Mail in April, 2017 to travel on July 2, a day after the implementation of the new GST regime. However, he had canceled the ticket before the implementation of the GST regime, after which he got a refund of Rs 665 against cancellation with a deduction of Rs 100 instead of Rs 65. He said that he was charged an additional amount of Rs 35 as service tax even though he had canceled the ticket before the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Thus began Swamy’s fight, who was told by IRCTC in an RTI reply that he would not get Rs 35 back. The railway services giant cited commercial circular number 43 of the Ministry of Railways and said that there will be no refund for the tickets booked. Before the implementation of GST and canceled after the implementation.
However, another RTI reply said that it was later decided that for tickets booked and canceled before July 1, 2017, the total amount of service tax levied at the time of booking would be refunded. “Therefore, the amount of Rs 35 will be refunded,” IRCTC said in its reply to Swamy’s RTI. “However, I received Rs 33 in my bank account on May 1, 2019, deducting Rs 2 as full value of service tax of Rs 35,” Swamy said.
He did not leave the battlefield there, and stood firm on his rights to receive Rs 2 for the next three years. The fruit finally came to them two weeks ago. According to Swamy, a senior IRCTC official informed him that “Railway Board has approved refund (Rs 35) to all users (2.98 lakh) as the process of submission of refund is underway. And all the passengers will get their refund gradually.”
Swamy said, “The fight was actually long with letters to around 50 RTIs, Railways, IRCTC, Ministry of Finance and Service Tax department, but finally I am satisfied as all the users with me will get refund of Rs 35, which is 2.43 crores. More than.” ,
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