Air ticket refund conundrum: Why is Vistara not returning GST component of tickets?

Full service airline Vistara has told travel partners that it won't refund the GST part of the tickets that were booked on or before March 31. These are tickets issued for travel during the lockdown. This would mean customers may lose out 5 percent - equivalent to the GST rate - on an economy seat, and 12 percent on a business class ticket that got cancelled because of the pandemic. The communicat…