Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways
ATransport Ministry panel has recommended allowing up to four-time surge in fares during night and three times during peak hours of the day to ensure adequate availability of taxis. "The committee recommends range-bound dynamic pricing to be allowed to effectively match demand and supply. It is felt that the maximum tariff may be permitted up to three times the minimum tariff," the committee report said. The committee was constituted to review issues relating to taxi permits and propose taxi policy guidelines to promote urban mobility. "To increase the availability of taxis during the night time, the committee recommends that maximum tariff may be allowed up to four times that of minimum tariff from 12 midnight to 5 am in morning. This would ensure adequate supply during peak hours and at night," the report uploaded on Ministry's website said. The panel comprised representatives from Transport Commissioners from four states and representatives from Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Police, Ministry of Women and Child Development, NITI Aayog and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. "Alternatively, the aggregators may be asked to provide the minimum fare that would be charged from the customers and the State Transport Department may fix a multiplier to cap the maximum fare. This would help in meeting the peak load requirements of the taxi users," the reports said. The panel has recommended that
states should facilitate unhindered grant of permits for City Taxi and All India Tourist Permit taxis without any restrictions on numbers. It has suggested that states should even promote bike sharing and e-rickshaws for last mile connectivity. The panel has identified growth in number of cars due to lack of public transport as one of the main reason for pollution. The panel found that Indian cities suffer from severe congestion and pollution in the world "Congestion related loss amounts to Rs. 60000 crore per annum. The social cost of pollution is also very high. Over half of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India. A major reason for this has been the uncontrolled growth of cars in our cities," the panel said. The panel said that India has added more than double the number of cars in the last sixteen years than we did in the first five decades since Independence. "Lack of reliable and convenient alternatives has resulted in this growth of car ownership in the country. The problem is acute even when less than 5% of India's population owns cars. With heavy in-migration to the cities, it will be unsustainable for India's urban populace to own a car," the report said. The panel suggested requirement of a uniform national guidelines which should facilitate safe, convenient and reliable transportation for citizens in cities around India, lower entry barriers to the commercial taxi operators/aggregators and promote opportunities amongst the unemployed youth in the country. It said that ceilings on city taxi permits also hurt the consumers due to irrational rent seeking. "This artificial scarcity of the city taxi permits is one of the main reasons for evolution of other modes of city taxi services as, citizens were in dire need of such taxi services which started operating due to high demand, providing relief and convenience to the public," the panel said. The panel has favored booking of taxis through mobile applications and even seat sharing with consent of the passengers. "The City Taxis may continue as street hailing taxis. However, they may also be allowed to ply on the aggregator platform, if they so desire," the report said, to reduce delays and to embrace digital technology online grant of the permits is recommended. It is further recommended to allow online conversion of compliant personal vehicles to commercial taxis on payment of requisite charges so as to facilitate use of idle assets, the report said. The committee has recommended avoiding unreasonable restrictions that will make taxi operations economically unviable, thereby causing inconvenience to the citizens and increased use of personalized vehicles. "There should be no restrictions on the choice of the operator or aggregators with regard to composition of the fleet, i.e. deluxe and economy," the report said. It has worked on privacy security of passengers booking taxi through mobile applications. The panel suggested that the Aggregators should get the App validated from Standardization Testing A and Quality Certification (STQC) or any other agency authorized by Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MEITY). "Aggregators should take measures including a firewall for the security of the personal data of the passengers," the report said.