SETC bus tickets can be booked only through official portals

CHENNAI: The long-distance buses operated by the State Express Transport Corporation and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation have stopped the booking of tickets through private e-commerce portals and apps to avoid payment of 5 per cent GST levied on bus tickets booked through those portals and apps.

Now the tickets for the buses operated by SETC and TNSTC could be booked only through the TNSTC portal or TNSTC app where GST would not be levied.

Sources in the transport corporation said that the GST on bus ticket booking through the e-commerce portals and app came into effect from January 1 this year. Since 2018, the state transport corporation bus tickets were booked through portals like Redbus, Abhibus and Paytm to ease the booking of tickets by the passengers.

“Now we have stopped booking tickets through the private portals. The online ticket booking is done only through the tnstc portal, ” the sources said.

According to the transport corporation officials, on an average about 20,000 tickets are booked through online mode during the weekdays while it goes up to 25,000 tickets during the weekend.

To encourage passengers to advance book the tickets, transport minister SS Sivasankar has announced that the passengers would get a 10 per cent discount on the bus ticket fare if they book tickets for the return journey too.

“It will come into effect very soon. We have asked the software developers to make necessary changes in the TNSTC portal and app to implement the 10 per cent discount for those booking return tickets, ” the official said.