Bill in Lok Sabha Today to Fix Upper Limit for Airlines Ticket Prices
IGI Airport, New Delhi. photo credit twitter @DelhiAirport
Congress MP Moves Pvt Member Bill in Lok Sabha to Regulate Airfare
By S Jha
New Delhi, December 20: Amid sharp fluctuations in prices of airlines tickets, a bill is set to be moved in the Lok Sabha to cap the upper limit of the air travel cost. The bill has come amid complaints of airlines significantly raising ticket costs for immediate travel plan.
The Congress MP Shafi Parambil, who represents the Vatakara parliamentary constituency in Kerala, has moved a private member bill to regulate the airfare in the country. The preamble of the legislative proposal states: “…recent years have witnessed an exorbitant rise in both domestic and international airfare, especially during the holiday seasons affecting a large number of passengers including the expatriates living in the Gulf Countries.”
It argued that “while most of the migrant workers in the Gulf region are unskilled and semi-skilled workers with limited income, the unscrupulous increase in airfare during the vacation seasons always drags them into a huge debt trap”.
“In the case of the expatriates, most of the migrant workers get leave only during the vacation season and hence the emotional value of uniting with family is most important for them most of the time, they are forced to pay their one-year savings only for the round trip airfare charges and many expatriates complain about the huge loan they had to take in order to get tickets,” adds the bill, which is listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The bill further states that “as the airlines operate at full capacity during the peak season and earn huge profit margins, the current policy of ‘unregulated overpricing’ is unethical, unfair and an injustice to the poor migrant workers living abroad”.
It also stated that before the de-regulation of airfare in 1994, the air tariffs were fully regulated by the government. “With the repeal of the Air Corporations Act in March 1994, airlines are free to fix reasonable tariffs under the provisions of sub-rule (1) of Rule 135 of Aircraft Rules, 1937,” added the bill.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has created ‘Tariff Monitoring Units’ to keep check that the fares charged by the airlines are within the prescribed tariffs of the airlines displayed on their websites.
The Lok Sabha MPs have in the past also raised the issue of overpricing of airfares. The Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had also urged upon the government to look into the issue.
The bill seeks to direct the government “initiate appropriate measures to regulate the airfare in such a way that there is a reasonable upper limit on the maximum fare”.
“A joint meeting with airline operators, representatives of the people and all other relevant stakeholders be called to discuss the issue of excessive airfare during the vacation seasons urgently while also establishing a quasi-judicial body to regulate and monitor the air tariff ethically and equitably,” added the bill.
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