IA duped by agents who don’t pay up

However, the airline’s finance manager told the vigilance department on January 22 that it did not have the documents related to the 50 tickets issued by the Srinagar agent. Recently IA’s area revenue division circulated a list of around two dozen travel agencies — in Delhi, Haryana, UP, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh — who have not yet paid their dues to theairline.

Sources in IA point out that in the past two years the number of its ticketing agents has gone up to 2,000. In Delhi alone, the number of agents has gone up from 200 to 600 and as a result the monitoring has been lax, according to airline sources. “Even the seriality of the tickets issued by the agents is not monitored, resulting in further losses to the airline,” the source added.

One Delhi agent recently defaulted on a payment of Rs 84 lakh owed to the airline. The agent has now given IA post-dated cheques but he still owes them more than Rs 40 lakh. Similarly two days ago, the revenue division discovered that at least four agents in Delhi together owed the airline an amount in excess of Rs 55 lakh.

Meanwhile, Ajay Goel, the proprietor of one such agency, clarified: “We had lost some money and hence were in a bad financial position. But now we are trying to clear the backlog.” As a damage control measure, the airline has asked at least two dozen ticket agents to return Cash ValueDocuments (CVD) or airline tickets and terminated their contracts.

On January 28, the Deputy General Manager, Finance (IA), wrote to the General Manager, Finance, Northern region, stating: “No action is being taken by the finance department to monitor over-trading or otherwise by such agents.” Sources pointed out that even the mandatory internal audit has been a mere eyewash.

As a result of malpractices on the part of the travel agents the country is losing precious foreign exchange. Many of the agents have been issuing tickets to foreigners in Indian rupees instead of in foreign currency. According to rules stipulated by the Government of India, an agent cannot issue a ticket to a foreigner in Indian rupees without a certificate which shows that the said foreigner is now living in India.

Others agents go on issuing tickets even after they have issued cheques to the airline which have bounced.

The IA Regional Director, Northern Region, was not available for comments. However, the IA spokespersonsaid: “Some of the agents have paid the money through post-dated cheques and appropriate action will be taken against others who have defaulted.”