As per report it is a lot easier to book a movie ticket online through an application on your mobile phone or a website on your computer but have you ever wondered what this extra ‘internet handling fee’ that you pay against each ticket means? Meanwhile an RTI query with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reveals that these platforms providing movie ticket booking services do not have any authority to levy handling fees on customers and they are in violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations.



Furthermore the MDR is a payment gateway fee paid by the merchant to the bank for accepting customer payments from a debit or credit card. Reportedly the RBI, in their response to an RTI query filed by Vijay Gopal, the president of the Hyderabad based ‘Forum Against Corruption’, states that the fee has to be paid to banks by merchants for internet based online transactions.

Image result for Websites BookMyShow & PVR wrongly charging customers ‘internet handling fees

Further the portal charges Rs 19.82 as internet handling fees that comprise a booking fee of Rs 16.80 and Rs 3.02 Integrated GST (IGST) at 18%. Hence most of us don’t mind paying this little extra cost to beat the queue; however, this Rs 16.80 is to be paid by BookMyShow to the bank and not by the customer. Apparently BookMyShow gives all theatres featured on their portal an option to levy the payment gateway fee on the customer in the form of internet handling fees, when in fact, the theatres are supposed to pay that amount for each debit/credit card transaction to the bank.


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