Booking movie tickets through mobile or computer is very easy. But did you ever think that with every ticket you are giving 'Extra Internet Handling Fees' what is it? In an RTI, it has been disclosed that RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has not made provision of charging extra internet handling fees for movie tickets by any platform.
According to The News Minute Report, the response received from an RTI filed with RBI revealed that any platform offering the movie ticket booking service has no right to take extra handling fees from the customers. It is a violation of the RBI's Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) Regulation. MDR is a payment gateway fee that is given to the bank by the dealer to take payment from the customer through debit or credit card.
In response to an RTI query filed by Reserve Bank of India Governor Vijay Gopal of 'Forum Against Corruption' in Hyderabad, the RBI said that these fees are to be given to the banks by the traders for internet-based online transactions. But when it comes to movie tickets, these fees are now being given to the customers by online ticket booking portals, which BookMyShow does.
The News Minute explained this by giving an example, that if you book a movie ticket from BookMyShow, then it costs Rs 157.82. Whereas, if the same ticket is purchased at PVR in a mall in Hyderabad then one will have to pay Rs 138. That means the portal charges Rs 19.82 as Internet charging fee, in which the booking fee is included at 16.80 rupees and 3.02 rupees integrated GST (IGST).
Many people do not pay attention to this fee to avoid the hassle of standing in line, but this 16.80 is to be given by Banks to BookMyShow, not by the customers.
The Forum Against Corruption has approached a Consumer Court in Hyderabad against BookMyShow and PVR as well as the Department of Information Technology, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the hearing of the case is expected on March 23.
