IRCTC Payment Gateway Launching Soon; #BureDin For Paytm, MobiKwik?
IRCTC wants to launch their own payment gateway, which will mean that business of Paytm and others will hugely suffer.
Approximately 1.2 crore tickets are booked per month on IRCTC’s website. Right now, IRCTC has partnered with online payment firms like Paytm, Mobikwik, Razorpay and more.
However, now, IRCTC wants to launch their own payment gateway, which will mean that business of Paytm and others will hugely suffer.
Indian Rail’s objective is to maximize revenues now, and it seems that a concrete step has just been taken.
IRCTC Payment Gateway: Coming Soon!
Named as iPay, IRCTC’s own payment gateway is currently being tested, and as per persons familiar with developments, it will be launched in the next 4-8 weeks.
As per reports coming in, Indian Rail wants to end dependency on 3rd party payment gateways, as their charges can be increased anytime, thereby impacting their revenues.
Right now, IRCTC’s website is India’s largest e-commerce portal in terms of revenues, and from a business perspective, this makes perfect sense for Indian Rail to have their own dedicated payment gateway.
MMAD Communications, a startup from Delhi has been roped in as their technology partner which will be providing all back-end support to the new payment gateway.
Paytm, Mobikwik To Face The Heat!
The sheer volume of online transactions done on IRCTC’s website is mind-boggling: 600,000 tickets were booked per day as per their 2016-17 data.
Any payment firm would be delighted to be part of this flow, as their overall transaction volume can increase massively, thereby triggering an overall positive reaction.
But now, once IRCTC’s iPay is launched, the existing payment firms which power IRCTC portal will feel the heat.
Right now, companies like Paytm and Mobikwik pay a fixed licensing fee to IRCTC and then share the revenue generated from every transaction done. Railways earn something between Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore from the licensing fee.
Although IRCTC will lose that revenue, direct, unfiltered income generated via transactions will be more than enough to cover the loss.
Indian Railways is also planning to use iPay for generating additional income, besides their portal, and this is the smart move.
If we believe reports, then iPay can be soon offered to other Govt. departments like Life Insurance Corp. of India and Employees Provident Fund Organization, and generate income from them as well.
IRCTC’s own payment gateway, iPay has already completed PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)  compliance last month, and is raring to go!
We will keep you updated, as we receive more information.
