NEW DELHI: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) directs ‘Yatra’ an online travel platform to refund booking amounts to consumers affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.There is over Rs 2.5 crore amount still pending for refund from Yatra of 4837 passengers, however, approximately Rs 23 crore refunded to consumers.The Authority has directed the travel platform to appoint five professionals at the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) for seamless resolution of consumer grievances. These professionals will directly inform those passengers and coordinate to get their pending refunds.The Authority made it clear that the costs incurred for engaging these five dedicated personnel will be fully covered by Yatra with payments made directly to the agency managed by NCH. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) received many grievance calls on its helpline number and lodged complaints relating to non-refund of cancelled air tickets on account of the COVID-19 lockdown wherein the consumers had alleged that the travel agencies informed them that refunds have not been received from the airlines etc.Later, the authority had issued a show cause notice to Yatra travel company on March 9, 2021, regarding the pendency of refunds of bookings which got affected by COVID-19. In pursuant to that CCPA conducted several hearings of the company and closely monitored the progress of refunds made to the consumers.From July 8, 2021, to June 25, 2024, the CCPA conducted several hearings to address these issues. As a result of these efforts, Yatra Online Limited has made significant progress in reducing the total number of pending refund bookings.In 2021, there were 36,276 pending bookings amounting to ₹26,25,82,484. As of June 21, 2024, this number has been significantly reduced to 4,837 bookings, amounting to ₹2,52,87,098. Yatra has refunded around 87% amount to consumers and further endeavour to refund around 13% amount to consumers in order to ensure that all pending refunds are processed promptly and efficiently by airlines.During the proceedings held before CCPA, several other travel platforms like MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, ClearTrip, Ixigo and Thomas Cook have refunded the entire amount to Consumers whose tickets got affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
Source link
