No Facilitation Fee to Agents for Air Travel by Government Officials
The Finance Ministry has barred PSU travel agents, including
IRCTC and Balmer Lawrie, from charging facilitation fees from government
officials on their domestic and international air travels.
The government had on October 10, 2013 allowed three
authorised travel agents - IRCTC, Balmer Lawrie and Ashok Travels & Tours -
to charge a facilitation fee of Rs. 100 on domestic air travels and Rs. 300 on
international travels.
"It has been decided to withdraw office memorandum of
October 10, 2013, with immediate effect," the expenditure department of
the Finance Ministry said in an office order.
Consequently, it added that "no fee/service charges
which are not included in the tariff charged by Air India/Airlines are required
to be paid to the authorised travel agents".
It also advised that as far as possible, air tickets on
government account may be obtained directly from Air India/airlines (booking
counters/offices/website).
However, it said, if it is not possible to obtain tickets
directly from Air India/airlines counters, they may obtain the services of
three authorised travel agents.
In order to rationalise government expenditure, the Finance
Ministry has already constituted an Expenditure Management Commission under
former RBI governor Bimal Jalan.
The commission is expected to suggest ways to prune
subsidies and reduce other expenses to bring down the fiscal deficit.
Source:NDTV Profit
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