TAFI plans elections in Q1 2021

After deferring its virtual convention this year, the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) is now working towards having its national elections early next year. The Federation is yet to finalise the format of the election.

Hazel Jain

Sharing an update on the association’s elections, Pradip Lulla, Acting President & VP, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), says, “We have just concluded all our Chapter and National AGMs. We are now looking to have our national elections early next year. We are still working on the modalities of it and looking at either doing a postal ballot or conducting it virtually using a software. We are currently in talks with a couple of technology companies that can provide us with the same.”

He added that the association has now postponed its plans to conduct its convention virtually. “We were planning to conduct our virtual convention in November 2020. However, we realise that people do not enjoy attending virtual events, especially when there is high possibility of technical glitches during the event. We will revisit our convention next year,” Lulla adds.

No GST refund on cancelled air tickets after Oct 1

Sharing an update on the ongoing discussion with the GST Council, Lulla reveals, “We had requested the GST Council and the Finance Ministry to review the refund of GST on air ticket refunds, and extend the date applicable for refund of GST till March 31, 2021 due to the delay in total refunds by airlines. However, we have received no update on this. In fact, we even took this matter up during the APJC meeting. Unfortunately, the airlines argued that the government is not abiding by that. So, agents who have submitted refunds after October 1, 2020 will not receive any refunds and GST will be deducted, because the airline has to pay to the government. Those who have submitted before October 1, their GST will not be cut, and will be duly refunded. The government is not willing to extend any leniency in this matter; since it is a liability to the government, they will not allow anything to agents.”

Referring to the need to safeguard travel agents’ interests in future, Lulla adds, “Travel agents’ payments to principals is unsecured credit and we need to ensure that some form of mechanism – whether through escrow or guarantee or underwriting-based mechanisms – is in place to ensure that their money stays secure.”