Taking note of numerous complaints on refund on air tickets, the government on Thursday issued a new set of rules which stipulate that the amount should be refunded within seven days of the tickets being cancelled.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the rule or Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), making it effective forthwith.

Even though the government does not interfere in commercial practices of airlines, the sheer volume of complaints in this regard made the DGCA issue the CAR in the interest of the travelling public, official sources said.

Despite several rounds of meetings on the issue the Civil Aviation Ministry had with airlines, there had been no improvement in the system adopted by the carriers for refund of tickets, they said.

Hence, it was felt that the onus rested with the government to fix certain minimum benchmarks on refunds to stem the growing dissatisfaction of air travellers.

As per the new CAR, refunds should be made within seven days of cancellation if the ticket is purchased by credit card. In case of cash transaction, immediate refund should be made by the airline office from where the ticket has been purchased.

If the ticket has been bought from a travel agent, the refund arrangement should be left to the passenger and the agent, the CAR stated, adding that airlines should indicate in "an unambiguous manner" the amount of money admissible on cancellation of a ticket.

In case of a lost ticket, the airline should take prompt action to refund the ticket amount after verification from their records, the CAR said.