Railway ticket booking offer: Get 5% discount on Indian Railways ticket reservation; here's how

Good news for railway passengers who book their train ticket at Indian Railways ticket reservation counters. You can avail a 5 per cent instant discount on train tickets if you pay using BHIM app or UPI. The railways is offering the discount to promote cashless transactions.

"UPI/BHIM is also accepted as payment option while booking tickets through counter. 5% discount on the total value of basic fare in Passenger Reservation System (PRS) reserved counter ticket is given for payments made through UPI including BHIM subject to maximum amount of discount of Rs 50 on a ticket and value of ticket being Rs 100 and more," railways had said in a release recently. 

This means if you book a ticket of Rs 500 and pay using BHIM app or UPI, it will cost you Rs 475 after a discount of Rs 25 (5 per cent of Rs 500). However, the maximum discount you can avail under the offer is Rs 50. You will be able to get the discount if the ticket cost is above Rs 100. There is no discount on tickets below Rs 100. 

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The railways has also installed POS machines at reservation counters to enable people using their credit and debit cards.

"Indian Railways have tied up with State Bank of India to install 10,000 Point of Sale (POS) machines at various locations of Indian Railways i.e. Passenger Reservation System (PRS)/Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) ticket booking counters and Parcel/Goods locations," it had said.

The digital payments for train ticket booking has been on the rise.

"The reserved tickets booked through digital means constituted approximately 66% of total reserved tickets booked in Financial Year 2017-18 as compared to approximately 60% in FY 2016-17," it said.