With the fresh review, passengers will have to pay Rs 27 per km, up from Rs 23 per km, with flag-down fare of Rs 10 which has not been changed. Fare per 200 meter has increased to Rs 5.4 from Rs 4.6.[break]
The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) took the decision on Monday, a day after the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) gave its consent for fare hike - the first in two years.
The DoTM had recently recommended that the MoLTM raise fare by 18 percent.
Krishna Prasad Dawadi, acting director general of the DoTM, said the government reviewed taxi fares, keeping in view the continued rise in price of petroleum products and cost of other components. He also said the new fare has been fixed as per the standard recommended by Scientific Fare Fixation Committee three years ago.
The government had last raised taxi fare on March 26, 2010, when price of petrol was Rs 77 per liter and bank interest rates was hovering around 15 percent.
“Price of petrol has climbed to Rs 97 per liter and banks too have raised interest rate to 18 percent. Costs of other components like insurance, maintenance, parts, tires and lubrication have also increased significantly. Taking these factors into consideration, we have raised taxi fare by 17.39 percent,” Dawadi told Republica.
Taking advantage of weak monitoring system, some taxi drivers are fleecing passengers by collecting exorbitant fares through meter tampering.
Ram Bahadur Shrestha, president of Nepal Meter Taxi Entrepreneurs´ Association, said taxi entrepreneurs were ready to cooperate with the government to punish those involved in fleecing passengers. Shrestha also suggested that the government form a committee comprising representative of concerned government agencies, taxi drivers, taxi entrepreneurs, consumer rights organizations and traffic police to check anomalies.
The government has also raised tourist taxi fare for different distances within the Kathmandu Valley. It has raised fare for 5 km distance to Rs 370 from existing Rs 315. Similarly, it has allowed taxi drivers to charge an additional Rs 53 per extra kilometer.
There are around 6,000 taxis in the Valley.
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