Mumbai: While buying rail and air tickets online seems to be a convenient option, getting its refund in case of cancellations has become a tedious job. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and all airlines have been complaining about not getting their refunds from banks promptly, which in turn, means they cannot repay their customers.

"We are associated with 30 banks, but two of them have been regularly defaulting on prompt refunds. We have stopped dealing with them," said Sanjay Aggarwal, general manager (operations), IRCTC. He, however, refused to divulge the names of the notorious banks.

Some of the banks that have not specified their exact dates of refund in Internet bookings on the IRCTC website are ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, IndusInd Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Rajasthan and Bank of Baroda.

No debit cards

Some travel agents, who book airline tickets, have stopped accepting debit cards, as the refund of money has become a problem. "Some airlines accept only credit cards, as refunding money on cancellations becomes easier. In debit cards, even if the airline has refunded the money, the bank in concern takes more time and that frustrates the customers," said Sameer Nemavalkar, head (cards), Axis Bank.

Another travel agent, Ashfaq Khan, agrees. "Several of my clients have not been getting their refunds for more than 30 days," Khan said. Regular commuter Abhishek Sen (22), who has had to wait for days to get his refund, added, "It is very inconvenient for people who need the cash immediately."

But Charudatta Deshpande, head, corporate communications, ICICI Bank, said, "We are just a payment gateway and we will credit the money only when we get. We are not to be blamed for the delay."

R I S Sidhu, general manager, IT department, Punjab National Bank, said, "If the refund is done directly to the central banking system account of the customer, then it does not take much time. But if it is done to cards (credit and debit), then it takes more time and that is where the real delay happens."

Rs 1,700 crore

IRCTC, which is one of the biggest e-ticketing platforms, had 2.7 million tickets booked through it in June. The transactions amount to more than Rs 1,700 crore in a financial year.