15 March 2011
The agency does not purchase tickets from the transporter and sell them to the travellers, what an agent does is login to the system on the customer approaching him and book the seat on receipt of the fare.
In a sense he is purely acting as an intermediary, he doesnot maintain any inventory. Any unsold seats in the bus or other conveyance is borne by the concerned operator and not by the agent.
The amount of comission is fixed by the transporter and paid to the agent, also the agent will have no say in the pricing of the ticket. Considering all the above and on the basis of the substance overform, this has to be taken as comission and not as Sales and purchses at gross.