Transport Minister to preside over meetings to decide on a cap on maximum fare that can be charged

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is preparing to come down heavily against surge pricing by cab aggregators, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

He is scheduled to preside over several meetings aimed at arriving at a cap on the fare that such vehicles would be allowed to charge commuters during the coming week, said sources.

HC order

Despite a prohibition on surge pricing declared by the government in addition to orders to this effect from the Delhi High Court, the Transport Department, according to a source, had been monitoring the situation only to have learnt that surge pricing continued to be prevalent across the Capital.

Commuters were found to have been charged higher fares, a source said, as recently as Friday due to the non-availability of public buses on inter-State routes in the wake of law and order exigencies triggered by the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by a Panchkula Court.

“The government is very clear on its stand on the issue of surge pricing; it is banned, will continue to be prohibited in Delhi and we will come down very hard on any operator found to be flouting these conditions,” Mr. Gahlot told The Hindu, adding that the Transport Department was planning to affect a crackdown to reinforce the ban soon.

‘Stringent conditions’

“We will finalise a cap on the maximum fare that cabs can charge commuters in the coming days, following which it will be added to the City Taxi Scheme, 2017 as an integral component and enforced strictly,” the Transport Minister added.

A source said the government was in the process of framing stringent conditions to regulate both the maximum and “dynamic” fares that commercially-registered cabs across various categories would be allowed to charge.

Underlined by an approach of incentivising driver and cab availability based on demand and supply factors such as location and time of day among others, the latter, a senior government official explained, were subject to change from time to time.

These dynamic prices had, so far, been unregulated and were now sought to be limited.

‘Holistic mix’

“The government will present, what in its view, should be the maximum fares that cabs can charge commuters despite demand and supply factors in the coming days to cab operators who will present their own rates to it for consideration,” said a source.

“Proposed caps on maximum chargeable fares are expected to be a holistic mix of both these rates across several cab categories,” the source added.