Travel co asked to refund flyers Rs. 8 crore it got from airlines for pandemic disruptions

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) ordered online travel agency Yatra to refund the payments of Rs 8.32 crore to customers, which it has received from airlines but has not been able to return to the customers for the suspension of flights during Covid-19 pandemic. The company has been directed to submit an action plan for payment of refund.

The CCPA has initiated suo motu probe into the pending refund of payments to customers by Yatra Online despite the direction from Supreme Court in October 2020 to make the refund within three months. Stating that the company has violated the direction of the Supreme Court, the CCPA said, “It is clear that the company has not made any significant effort and neither has created any specific arrangement to refund Rs 8.32 crore to 16,090 customers and are sitting tight over the refunds received by various airlines.”

The order was passed by CCPA chief commissioner, Nidhi Khare and commissioner, Anupam Mishra after examining the reply from the company and after conducting a random check by making direct calls to 70 consumers who had booked tickets through the online firm. The company had submitted to the authority how it is “committed to ensuring all out efforts towards completing the pending refunds” and had even said it was “ready to deposit” the pending refund amount of Rs 8.32 crore in “an escrow account”, if it was directed to do so.