The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Tuesday directed online travel platform Yatra to refund over Rs 2.5 crore pending amount to consumers affected due to cancelled air tickets during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The CCPA said its order reinforces the importance of timely refunds and “Yatra is directed to adhering to this directive to ensure complete resolution for all pending bookings”.

From July 8, 2021 to June 25, 2024, the CCPA -- which comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution -- conducted several hearings to address these grievances and Yatra Online Limited made significant progress in reducing the total number of pending refund bookings.

In 2021, there were 36,276 pending bookings amounting to Rs 26,25,82,484.

As of June 21, 2024, this number has been significantly reduced to 4,837 bookings, amounting to Rs 2,52,87,098.

“Yatra has refunded approximately 87 per cent amount to consumers and further endeavour to refund nearly 13 per cent amount to consumers in order to ensure that all pending refunds are processed promptly and efficiently by airlines,” said the ministry.

It came to the notice of the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) through National Consumer Helpline that many grievances were lodged relating to non-refund of cancelled air tickets on account of Covid lockdown.

During the proceedings held before CCPA, several other travel platforms like MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, ClearTrip, Ixigo and Thomas Cook have refunded the entire amount to consumers whose tickets got affected due to lockdown.

To further facilitate timely processing of refunds to consumers, CCPA issued an order in June, wherein it directed Yatra to set up dedicated arrangements at the National Consumer Helpline (NCH).

“Specifically, Yatra is required to allocate five exclusive seats at NCH for making calls to the remaining 4,837 passengers informing them that their pending refunds due to Cpvod-19 lockdown-related flight cancellations will be processed,” the CCPA said.

--IANS