New Delhi, Aug 24 - The railway ministry will introduce the new and lower Tatkal charges from Oct 1, it announced Monday.

'The Ministry of railways has decided to reduce the Tatkal charges with effect from October 1, 2009. The new Tatkal charges will be at the rate of 10 percent of basic fare for second class and 30 percent of basic fare for all other classes,' said a ministry statement.

The minimum charges for the second class sleeper and air-conditioned chair car will range from Rs.75 to Rs.150, and that for the second and first air-conditioned sleeper cars from Rs.200 to Rs.300.

However, the existing refund rules will remain unchanged.

The new charges will be levied uniformly both in peak period and non-peak periods.

The Tatkal facility will be introduced for executive class tickets of Shatabdi Express trains also. Five seats per coach will be earmarked for Tatkal tickets.

Earlier, the ministry had decided to reduce the advance reservation period (ARP) under Tatkal scheme from five days to two days (excluding the date of journey) from this month.