Macao’s taxi association is intending to apply for a taxi fare increase with the Transport Bureau (DSAT) before Chinese New Year, according to local media reports. The proposed fare rise will include a surcharge during statutory public holidays.
During yesterday’s edition of the TDM radio talkback program, Macao Forum, the chairman of the Macau Taxi Driver Mutual Association, Tony Kwok, noted that the organisation had attempted to apply for a fare rise in 2019, but the plans fell through due to the pandemic.
Referring to the demand for a public holiday levy, Kwok said “During the first, second and third day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, we will add a surcharge to supplement our drivers’ petrol costs,” adding that the price of petrol is currently “about fourteen patacas per litre” and that maintenance costs have gone up.
During the program, members of the taxi sector called to discuss the pressures that they were facing from soaring petrol prices in recent years.
“Why hasn’t the chief executive said a single word about the lack of a taxi fare increase in seven years?” a caller with the surname Wong said. “Are you telling me taxi drivers don’t need to provide for their families?”
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The last taxi fare increase was in 2017 which saw the flagfall for the first 1.6 kilometres increased from 17 patacas to 19 patacas.
Meanwhile, Macao Daily reported that multiple bidders of the government’s recent public tender for 500 new taxi licences have questioned the integrity and fairness of the process.
According to the paper, legislator Lam U Tou was told by several bidders that bidding documents were not sealed up in accordance with procedure on the first day of bidding. There are also concerns that the process was only monitored by DSAT representatives.
The legislator intends to hand over the information that he has received to the Commission Against Corruption, Macao Daily said.
—With reporting by Kenny Fong
