Zakir Ahmed, recently elected President of TAFI, reveals the plans of the new Managing Committee
According to the new President of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), Zakir Ahmed, their victory was a win-win situation both for the new committee as well as TAFI members. “The members have voted for a change as they felt that the committee needed to go through a major overhaul and a new action plan for the future. We hope to take TAFI back to what it was,” said Ahmed, adding that the team that has come now is very experienced and includes three past presidents who have come together as one to address industry issues better.
Ahmed believes that time is running out and it is mandatory for the new committee to step in and take charge of the pending issues. “There a lot of burning issues that have to addressed immediately including the weekly payment issue as well as the insurance fees for agents and service tax. We are going to work towards finding an amicable solution to the former as it has been haunting the travel trade and the airlines for way too long.” He further added, “Fortunately most of the airlines have understood our point of view regarding the weekly payment and commission cuts and I believe that with each passing interaction with the airline we are getting closer to our goal.”
Ahmed also revealed that TAFI will soon be organising seminars and training sessions for the travel trade to keep them updated with the latest policies and movements. TAFI has also formed an Advisory Committee that also includes professionals and veterans of the industry. Ahmed believes that these experts will guide the TAFI members and help them in addressing the issues practically.
Commenting on the decision to postpone the TAFI convention to February 2013 Ahmed said, “We are a new committee and a newly elected committee cannot have a convention within one months’ time. We want to organise an amazing convention and not have it just for the sake of it.” But Ahmed states that their major reason for postponing the convention is the current scenario of the trade industry. “We cannot have a convention without solving pending issues and helping the travel agents. We have very set priorities and the future of the travel agents in India tops that list.”
The new Committee Members include: Praveen Chugh as the new Vice President, Pradeep Lulla as General Secretary and Darshan Shah as Treasurer, Sanjay Arya, A Basheer Ahmed, Aditi Bhende, Urvashi Dogra Mohan and Jayesh Tharani.
