A 30-year-old Kota-based engineer Sujeet Swami has helped 3 lakh rail passengers get refund from the Indian Railways by winning a 5-year fight to get Rs 35 refund from the Railways.
The Railways has approved Rs 2.43 crore in refunds to 2.98 lakh IRCTC users.
Swami filed nearly 50 Right to Information applications and shot off letters to four government departments in his fight to get back Rs 35 charged as service tax despite cancelling his ticket before the GST was implemented.
“My repeated tweets to demand the refund, tagging the PM, Railway minister, Union minister Anurag Thakur, GST Council and the Finance minister played key roles in the approval of refund of Rs 35 to 2.98 lakh users,” Swami said.
Swami claimed that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in its reply to his RTI query said 2.98 lakh users — many of whom might have bought multiple tickets — would get a refund of Rs 35 on each ticket amounting to a total of Rs 2.43 crore.
Swami had booked a railway ticket from his city to New Delhi in the Golden Temple Mail in April 2017 to undertake a journey on July 2, a day after the new GST regime came into force. However, he had cancelled the ticket priced at Rs 765 following which he received a refund of Rs 665 with a deduction of Rs 100 instead of Rs 65 against the cancellation.
