Many who paid for foreign tours last yr yet to get refund

Many who paid for foreign tours last yr yet to get refund

Manju .V@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:28.03.2021 

Summer holiday revellers who paid lakhs for foreign destination group tours that were cancelled last summer because of the lockdown are yet to receive a refund. The matter is now with the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which issued a show cause notice to a top tour operator last week.

The governments in other countries have been strict in imposing consumer rights, said Advocate Shirish Deshpande, chairman, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a consumer rights body. For instance, European Commission sent comprehensive directions last year to tour operators to respect consumers’ right to refund; Competition and Market Authority-UK in July last year warnsed tour operators of strict action in case of consumer rights violations; UK has also initiated investigations in many such cases; US-Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued guidelines for refund compliance.

In India, the tourism ministry has passed on the matter to state governments concerned. “This ministry has regularly been requesting hotels, tour operators… to waive off cancellation charges and refund advance payments to consumers up to the extent possible or explore an amicable resolution...” said the March 11 letter sent by Meenakshi Mehta, joint director general, tourism ministry, to state governments. It asked the state government concerned to address and resolve the refund issue.

On March 17, Anupam Mishra, the CCPA commissioner, issued a show cause notice to Veena World after MGP, in February, filed consumer complaints against a top tour operator alleging unfair trade practices. “Violating the right to full refund of the entire class of consumers, compelling them to accept credit shell, wrongful deduction of exorbitant charges...” were some of the points in the show cause notice.

Veena Patil of Veena World said: “Our legal team will be responding to the show cause notice, point by point. We have always been open, we communicate our position, be it to MGP or others.” She added that Veena World had reopened domestic group tour bookings on January 14 for group tours to Kashmir, Kullu Manali, North East, Andaman and the like.

“Till date, over 10,000 have booked and 8,300 have travelled so far. More than 4,000 were guests who had booked foreign group tours that got cancelled last year. In case of senior citizens, the credit amount is transferrable to their blood relations,” Patil said.

There is no official data on the quantum of sum trapped in credit with tour companies. But an MGP survey, that covered about 2,700 affected people found that the big tour operators (Veena World, Kesari, Makemytrip, Mango, Neem and Thomas Cook) owed over Rs 43 crore to these respondents. “The actual amount lying in credit with these operators would be much higher,” said Deshpande. “Of the 2,700 survey respondents, about 1,800 were senior citizens. They have no means to legal recourse,” he said, adding that most were from Maharashtra.

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