Mumbai: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the public to check the exact airline fare with the authority concerned before booking air tickets from an agent or any travel-based web portal. This advice comes days after investigations revealed that a Congress MP was fraudulently overcharged by a travel agent on several occasions.
As per the law, an MP can book tickets for any Air India flight either through the secretariat, or by themselves and later get reimbursed. In one case, the secretariat found that the agent had charged Ashk Ali Tak much higher than the actual fare.
Though Tak paid Rs99,292 for a Delhi-Chennai flight, the agent paid only Rs39,292 to the airline. Similarly, for a Hyderabad-Bangalore flight, the agent charged Rs67,270 for a Rs17,270 ticket. The secretariat is believed to have lodged a formal complaint with the aviation secretary KN Srivastav.
25/02/13 Shahkar Abidi/Daily News & Analysis
