It has also promised reimbursement to those who have already installed the meters in their taxis. One of the grievances over the installation of taxi meters in the State was that the purchase of the meters had to be from the government and not from a vendor of the taxi operators’ choice. This clause was insisted by the government as there were various facilities such as vehicle location tracking device and emergency button (VLTD), GPS tracking etc incorporated with the meter. The offer of free meters solves that one issue, but raises various others, as this is not the solution to the ongoing issue that has been debated for around a decade.
The taxi operators who were asked to fit the meters to their commercial vehicles had already been assured of a subsidy on the equipment. Essentially, taxi operators would have got the fare meters free of cost even earlier, as the government would reimburse the cost of installing the digital meters to the taxi owners but the operators would have to meet the additional costs like subscription and annual maintenance fees. Even that has now been waived off making it all free. The announcement coming just months before an election smacks of an attempt at creating a vote bank from among the taxi operators, contentions that have already surfaced on social media.
This free distribution of digital fare meters is going to cost the State exchequer approximately Rs 34 crore, a big sum for a cash-strapped government, however, will this freebie bring an end to the issue that has been festering for a decade? Taxi operators have had an aversion to digital fare meters and few have installed them in their vehicles. Will they change their manner of thinking just because the meters are now free? There was hardly any reason for this decision of the government and the installation of meters had been mandated by the courts. If the taxi operators were resisting it, does it mean that the government should offer a freebie at the cost to the exchequer?
Forcing the installation of digital fare meters arose mainly because of complaints of exorbitant fares charged by the taxi operators that led to the tourism body approaching the court for directions to the government on the matter. A meter was seen as the solution to this overcharging, but in current times app-based aggregators are also another possible solution and this has to be considered by the government, before the digital fare meters are installed in the cabs. If there is an alternative and if this option is viable and more futuristic, why shouldn’t it be considered? Yet, simultaneously, there are voices in the cabinet being raised in opposition to the app-based taxi service providers that are already running a business in the State.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo has been keeping up the pressure stating that cab aggregators will not be allowed to pick up customers from taxi stands, beaches, hotels, and everyone will have to follow the queue system at these places. What Lobo needs to tell us is whether there are notified taxi stands at beaches and outside hotels. Currently, taxis are seen occupying public parking space in front of hotels depriving genuine motorists a place to station their vehicles. App-based taxis services are grabbing a bigger share of the market across India and the world, attempting to place barriers to their growth could well hurt the tourism industry, which is the mainstay of the taxi business. Can the taxi operator survive if tourism crumbles?
