Government said on Tuesday several private airlines along with national carrier Air India have restored payment of commission to travel agents after they had decided not to pay from November 1 onwards.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said, "full service airlines earlier used to offer five per cent commission to travel agents on basic fare."
"From November 1, 2008, Air India, Jet Airways [Get Quote] and Kingfisher abolished the agency commission and introduced transaction fee model... (however) Jet and Kingfisher have started paying commission on basic fare and fuel surcharge.
"Air India also abolished transaction fee from December 2."
The minister said as per IATA norms, all tickets should now be e-tickets and India also started following this norm from November 1.
"However, as our country has socio-economic concerns of its own, we discussed the commission issue with airlines and asked them to do a rethink over it".
Patel also said air ticket commission is a commercial matter between travel agencies and airlines. "Government does not regulate commercial matters of the airlines".
CPI-M MP Brinda Karat had voiced concern through her question that due to the airlines' decision to abolish payment of commission to travel agents, their livelihoods could be affected in a major way.
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