At 8pm on November 8, there was much panic in the country after PM Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 with immediate effect. It is a fight against black money circulation in the country.
People have since queued up at businesses that were ordered to accept notes of₹500 and₹1,000 until November 11. Petrol pumps, government hospitals, state buses, and airline and train ticket counters are amongst them.
Concerns have been raised that miscreants could use such counters to convert their unaccounted cash into white money — purchase a ticket with cash (denominations of 500 and 1,000), and later cancel the booking, which as per the law, is refunded in valid denominations.
National newspaper, Economic Times reported: “The next day cash transactions (refunds) at airline ticket counters as much as trebled. On Thursday (November 10), they surged to six times normal volumes.”
Hence, yesterday, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed airlines to issue only non-refundable tickets over their counters.
Following this decision, airlines have tweeted to their customers about the same:
Vistara
Jet Airways
GoAir
IndiGo
SpiceJet
AirAsia India
The airline used the situation to up their ticket sales, before acting on the government order to issue non-refundable tickets, as the invitation was being misused.