E-Payment of railway freight

Features of the product in brief

Indian Railways has facilitated electronic payment of freight services availed for transportation of goods. The facility allows online debit to customer's account and credit to concerned Zonal Railways Headquarter account.

Earlier, State Bank of India was the only bank authorized by railways to carry on this business. Now, our bank has also been authorized for this business by the Ministry of Railways/ Finance, Railway Board and RBI.

Terms & Conditions

To avail of the above facility, customer must have an account exclusively for this purpose with the bank. No other debits would be permitted in this account.

Any rail customer having regular business with Railway is to apply to the Chief Commercial Manager (CGM) of the Zonal Railway on which the booking station is located.

Documents required

In addition to the dedicated account, the customer would be required to open an irrevocable inland Letter of Credit / Bank Guarantee (valid for 12 months from the date of commissioning of the e-payment facility with a provision permitting its enhancement up to 15 days after the validity period of LC, if required) as a fall-back in case account is short of the required amount towards freight payment in favour of the Railway at a branch of a bank mutually agreed upon by the customer and Zonal Railway.

A tripartite agreement (TPA) is required to be signed among the Bank, Customer and the Railways whereby the Customer will give mandate to the bank to debit their account at the request of Railways for payment of freight.

After execution of TPA between the Railways, Customer and PNB, Railways will give a Unique 3 digit Customer Numeric Code to the customer.

Suggested time norms for activity

When the customer books the goods for transportation at the originating point, the goods clerk at the loading point will key in the customer code and other particulars. The information would pass through Railway Server to PNB's Internet Banking and after necessary authentication at bank's end account of the customer would be debited. A corresponding message would be sent back. Bank will collect funds from customer's account and electronically credit the same to Railway's account during business hours or at the start of the next business day if such a transaction takes place after close of business hours.

When the payment confirmation is received by the goods clerk at the originating station, Railways will release the goods on "paid E-RR" basis. In case of insufficient funds, system will issue "To-Pay E-RR".

Dos &Do'nts

Customer should always maintain sufficient balance in their dedicated account to meet the freight charges amount.