Tag Archives: agents

Ajay Prakash, President of TAFI, has emphasised the importance of working with the government to devise a method to protect travel agents’ funds. “We must now continue to build on this as a team to ensure security for our travel agents.” Payments to principals by travel agents constitute unsecured credit, and we must ensure that some type of system, such as escrow, guarantee, or underwriting-based methods are in place to keep travel agents’ money safe. We look forward to engaging with the government on this,” he said.

Air India, in a circular, has written to the travel agents against overcharging for the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flights. The national carrier has recently opened the Vande Bharat Mission flight booking for travel agents and other OTAs. Now, they have warned travel agents against overcharging for VBM flights and said that if any agents found doing the same, they will lose their authority to sell Air India tickets. Air India has asked passengers to check fares on https://bit.ly/309voT7 and not overpay for Vande Bharat Mission flights.

A recent Travel Consul survey that analyses the impact and outlook of the COVID-19 outbreak on tour operators and agency owners suggests that at least 42 per cent of the businesses surveyed will not be able to sustain themselves for more than three months in the absence of any government intervention. While a meagre 3 per cent of the respondents said that they have a chance of survival for a period of 7-10 months, those who will be able to sustain themselves for a longer period in the absence of government intervention made up only 12 per cent of the total respondents.

Jet Airways is the latest airline to do away with the basic commission for IATA travel agents. The airline has sent official communication to travel agents across the country that they will not be paying them one per cent basic commission from January 1, 2018. The move comes in line with many international airlines also adopting the same route. Confirming the news, a senior airline official said that while the commission will not be there, agents can levy transaction fee of up to 3.5 per cent of the basic fare. They can also include fuel surcharge component in tickets. However, the news has aggrieved the agents, who believe that the move is not fair and the airline needs to relook at its decision.

According to a recent judgement by the Delhi High Court, there cannot be any audit of assesse records by the Central Excise and Service Tax Department and struck down Rule 5A(2) of Service Tax Rules as ultra vires to the Finance Act, 1994. It is a general practice of Service Tax Department to conduct audit of service tax assessee for last five years by deputing their own officers of the rank of inspector and Superintendents. Service Tax Department also seeks voluminous details and seeks information in self-specified format/annexures of about 32 pages, which are not prescribed under the law. Service Tax Department without assigning any reasons and routinely conducts audit even when it is not prescribed under the law and not conducting special audit. This comes as a huge relief for travel companies who have faced instances of audit by service tax department.