The Hindu Business Line : Travel agents take up air fare tax issue with Finance Minister

Mumbai, Dec. 19 Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) seems to be aggressively pursuing the issue of double taxation being levied by the Government on air ticketing.

According to TAAI, apart from 12.36 per cent service tax on the air fare, there is an additional tax of around 1.23 per cent on the travel agents’ commission.

“This double taxation leads to a total of around 13.5 per cent service tax being charged on the same air fare. We have brought this to the notice of the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and we expect the Government to respond by February 2008,” said Mr C.V. Prasad, Global Chairman of United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA) and President of TAAI.

Uniform Certification

Among other global initiatives, UFTAA – the universal body of travel associations – also plans to put a uniform certification regime for online travel portals, across the world. According to Mr Prasad, the move would put a check on Internet related frauds.

“The vendors would be registered under UFTAA and the certificate would also serve as a mark of authenticity for the end-customer,” Mr Prasad said.

The process is likely to be in place in the next three to four months.

Training institute

The association will also be starting a training institute for travel related individuals in Brussels by next year. It will be on an open university format with an international curriculum, helping travel and tourism industry people get a flavour of global geographies and culture.

Also, a hotel booking engine is being developed on the TAAI Web site, which is likely to be adopted by UFTAA at a later stage.

Mr Prasad said this is to enable a travel agent get the lowest priced hotel room at any point of time.