IRCTC Agent Rules: What the Counter Must Keep

Say a customer walks up to your counter, wants one ticket, and says, “No need to photocopy my ID, it’s just one booking.” What do you do?

IRCTC has already answered that question in writing, and the answer isn’t the one the customer is hoping for. The rules cover what you keep in a drawer, what you hang on the wall, what you can charge, and who pays when something goes wrong. This page walks through them in plain words.

We’ve left out the short list of restrictions that already sits on the registration page. What’s here are the counter-level duties that are easy to miss: records, receipts, refunds and penalties.

Where do the agent rules come from?

IRCTC doesn’t register a new retail agent directly. A Principal Service Provider (PSP) registers you, and IRCTC issues the agent ID. In IRCTC’s own papers you’re called a Retail Service Provider (RSP). The same rules bind both of you, and plenty of duties sit with the PSP, not with you.

Four IRCTC documents matter here. As of 18 October 2026, all four open on IRCTC’s content site:

The first one is the main text, and this page follows it. It’s a short PDF, so it’s worth reading once yourself.

Tatkal timing isn’t in any of these four. Indian Railways announced it and the Press Information Bureau (PIB) published the announcement (release 2135694, 11 June 2025). The Tatkal article covers it.

How current is all this?

Not as current as you’d like, and IRCTC says so itself. The Norms for Internet Cafe Scheme say the listed charges are “liable to change without notice at any point of time”.

So read everything below as IRCTC’s published text as of 18 October 2026, not as a promise about how it’s enforced today. Ask your provider which version applies to your ID.

What records and receipts must the counter keep?

Here’s what the rules document asks for, as of 18 October 2026.

A written request and an ID copy, kept for six months. You keep the customer’s written or electronic request, plus a copy of their ID proof. That’s for both bookings and cancellations. IRCTC can ask for the customer’s details “as and when required”. If you don’t have them, the penalty is ₹5,000 plus taxes per case.

So back to our customer with the “just one booking”. The document makes the record your duty, and the penalty table puts the cost of a missing request on your provider.

A passenger mobile number, entered correctly. The customer’s number, or one of the passengers’ numbers, is mandatory at booking. It must also show correctly on the electronic reservation slip (ERS). As of 18 October 2026, a wrong or missing number carries the same ₹5,000 plus taxes per case. Read the number back to the customer before you submit.

An ERS in IRCTC’s prescribed form. The slip must carry your name, full address and contact details, along with the PSP’s name.

An invoice on your own stationery. It shows the railway fare, IRCTC’s charges, your agent charge and the payment-gateway charge. The document says the tax is included in the agent charge and should be shown separately.

A money receipt. The penalty table lists not issuing one as a minor irregularity.

What must go on the wall?

Two display duties appear in the document, and the penalty table checks both.

The first is a sign board outside the agency. It can carry IRCTC’s logo, and it should list the rules, IRCTC’s charges, the agent’s charges and the payment-gateway charges.

The second is the Certificate of Authorisation your PSP issues. The document says it should be “prominently displayed” at the outlet, agency, counter or centre. If you’re not sure what that letter is, the certificate page explains it and why it isn’t something you download.

The same document puts limits on branding. You can’t print reservation application forms with the IRCTC logo on top. You can’t use the logo on visiting cards, letterheads or pamphlets unless IRCTC approves. And it says “popularizing the organizations name as authorized Railway Agents” is prohibited. So before you print a card or a banner with railway wording on it, ask your provider.

As of 18 October 2026, the penalty table treats a missing sign board or certificate, and logo misuse or an unapproved advertisement, as minor irregularities. The first time, the PSP pays ₹5,000 plus taxes and you get a warning. The second time, the PSP pays another ₹5,000 plus taxes and your agent ID is permanently deactivated.

What can you charge, and what can’t you?

The document is short on this. It forbids “collection of extra charges in any form”, and gives two examples: charging for a cancellation and charging for checking availability. Your agent charge applies only to a booking. Cancellations carry none.

IRCTC’s Norms for Internet Cafe Scheme list a maximum agent charge of ₹20 for Sleeper and ₹40 for AC, including GST. The integration policy (effective from 2 September 2020) says the charge is collected per PNR, however many passengers are on it.

We call it the agent charge. SiOnline pays agents no commission.

The payment-gateway charge is a separate line on the invoice. Payment-gateway charges: being confirmed with IRCTC.

How do cancellations and refunds work?

The customer is the trigger. The document says you should cancel a ticket “only on request of the customer”, and the penalty table lists cancelling without the customer’s knowledge as a major irregularity.

When you cancel on the customer’s request, a one-time password (OTP) SMS goes to the passenger’s mobile number. The passenger shares the OTP with you, and then you refund the cancellation amount to the customer. If the correct OTP isn’t received, the refund isn’t processed. The document also says the refund details must be given to the customer at the time of cancellation.

That’s why the passenger mobile number matters so much at booking time. A wrong digit there can leave a refund stuck.

For a refund claim or an unusual case, check the route that applies to that ticket today. The Ministry of Railways announcement published by PIB on 24 March 2026 describes revised cancellation arrangements and removal of the e-ticket TDR requirement. The older document has its own TDR instructions, and you shouldn’t treat those as a current filing sequence.

What does the rules document forbid?

The “don’ts” list has sixteen items. These are the ones that matter most at a counter.

• Booking on any ID except the agent ID IRCTC gave you. If you’re found using another ID, or a personal ID, for commercial gain, your ID is deactivated at once, and punitive or legal action follows.
• Selling tickets booked on a personal ID, “in any manner, whatsoever”. The document says transfer and re-sale of tickets “is punishable under Indian Railway Rules under Sec.142”. That’s its wording, not our reading of it.
• Benami tickets. That means tickets in a name that isn’t the real traveller’s. The document says anybody doing it will be prosecuted. Blocking accommodation with fictitious names is also banned, and the document calls it a criminal offence.
• Tampering with the ERS. Altering the slip is treated as a criminal act.
• Cancelling without the customer’s knowledge and request.
• “I- tickets or counter tickets”. The document calls these punishable “with minimum punishment of immediate deactivation of the user id”.
• Tatkal robots. That includes saving the booking form, or allowing the Tatkal form to be opened before the stipulated time or during the banned time period. The document files all of this under software tampering.
• Sharing your login, or handing selling to a third party “by any mode or manner”. The document names websites, smartphone apps and tablet apps.
• Print or press advertising without IRCTC’s written permission.

A few more rules sit in the same document. You should book a ticket only when the customer approaches you. If your address changes, tell IRCTC immediately, along with the original certificate your PSP gave you. If a customer complains about an agent, the PSP is told to suspend that ID at once and inform IRCTC. And a PSP can deactivate an agent ID that hasn’t booked any e-tickets for six months.

Who pays the penalties?

Most of them fall on the PSP, not on you. But your agent ID is also permanently deactivated for unauthorised access, point-of-sale fraud and booking or cancellation breaches, and on a second minor instance. As of 18 October 2026, the rules document groups them like this:

One oddity: the document lists “sharing of access credentials” under two headings with two different penalties, and it never explains the overlap. Don’t count on the lower figure.

There’s also a ladder that explains why your provider cares about complaints. As of 18 October 2026, the document says that if complaints are proved against five different agents of one PSP in a month, the PSP gets a show cause notice. With six to ten, its services are suspended for a month. With eleven to fifteen, for three months.

What happens when someone complains?

As of 18 October 2026, the process in the document is short. IRCTC first asks the PSP for an explanation. Once the irregularity is established, it issues a show cause notice, which is a written demand to explain, and gives 5 days to reply. If a penalty is imposed, there are 3 days to pay. An unpaid penalty is debited from the PSP’s rolling deposit account, the advance deposit the PSP keeps with IRCTC.

The competent authority can go further, up to termination, even on a first instance.

The document also says the PSP is equally liable for the civil and criminal liabilities of its agents. What it doesn’t say is whether a PSP may recover a penalty from its agent. So ask your provider about that in writing before you register, and read the answer again whenever the agreement changes.

Is a DSC required?

No. A retail agent can log in with OTP, or with a DSC if they hold one (IRCTC integration policy, effective 2 September 2020). A Class 3 DSC is optional.

If a provider tells you a DSC rule one way or the other, ask which IRCTC document and date it rests on.

What should you do at the counter, starting this week?

1. Keep a dated folder, paper or electronic, of customer requests and ID copies.
2. Check that your sign board lists the rules and all the charges.
3. Hang the certificate where customers can see it.
4. Enter a passenger mobile number on every booking and read it back.
5. Keep the customer’s cancellation request, and use the current refund route for that ticket.

Never share your agent password or a login OTP with a colleague, a customer or a caller. If you’re a SiOnline agent and something at your counter doesn’t fit these rules, contact SiOnline support on +91 91091 35959, 24 hours, 7 days, and give your agent ID, not your password. And if you’re still choosing a provider, the PSP list page shows how to check one against IRCTC’s register.

Facts on this page were last checked on 18 October 2026. Rules, charges and penalties change, so confirm them at the source before you act. PIB release: 2135694.

Sources

Official pages linked in this article:

• Rules & Regulations for Reserved Rail e-Ticketing Service Providers
• Revised Agent Policy for E-Ticketing PSPs, Internet Café and B2B Schemes
• Policy for Integration of B2B & Internet Café Principal Service Providers, 2020
• Norms for Internet Cafe Scheme
• Ministry of Railways announcement published by PIB on 24 March 2026
• 2135694

Fees, dates and rules change. Confirm them at the source before you act.