Online Payment System Now For Railway Freight Charges

Ease of doing business gets a major boost in the rail sector as Indian Railways has framed new guidelines for online payment system for freight charges by doing away with the existing system which was a little cumbersome.

The online payment system to be implemented from June will be provided through Freight Business Development (FBD) portal via SBI's payment gateway.

It will provide for collection of freight and all kinds of ancillary charges and shall be available through all modes like Net Banking/RTGS/NEFT, Credit card/Debit card/UPI through customer's Dash Board.

According to the Railways, till now it was issuing electronic Railway receipts and customers were making e-payment. Present model was such that customers had to keep some bank guarantee with the bank and through the bank they were making online payments, which was cumbersome and used mainly by big customers.

Also for ancillary charges other then freight charges, customers were not using this facility, besides, creating of bank guarantees was another issue being faced by small/onetime customers.

"Now we have opened up everything. Customers can directly pay to the Railways from their account through RTGS/NEFT/Credit card etc. There's no need for any bank guarantee and the process has become as simple as purchasing something online. Even meagre ancillary charges like demurrage, wharfage can be paid now by click of a mouse," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Tremendous progress in information and communication technology has now made it feasible to introduce online payment system through web and that is expected to make the process of paying all types of charges including freight and ancillary charges simpler, convenient, speedier and transparent.

This can be done by enabling on the web an option for the payment of various charges accrued to the customer. It will provide the facility for collection of freight and all kinds of ancillary charges such as Premium Charge, Wagon Registration Fee, Demurrage, Wharfage, Siding Charge, Shunting Charge, Rebooking Charge, Diversion Charge, etc.

Customers/Secondary Customers willing to avail the facility shall be required to register on the FBD portal as per the procedure laid down for Registration under Electronic registration of demand (e-RD) policy.

A dashboard will be made available to the Goods Clerk. On logging-in with his user ID, the Goods Clerk will be able to see details of all registered Customers and Secondary Customers, including their code and GSTIN number etc.

In case of a non-e registered customer, the Goods Clerk shall be given the option to feed the details of the customer and identify the indent number of the same while registering demand.

Customers/Secondary Customers will receive a text message on their registered mobile numbers and email IDs regarding payment of due charges.