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Mumbai: Sangh wing wants Motor Vehicle Act to tackle cab surge pricing

SJM's all India co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said a recently released public survey has indicated that consumers from across the country are facing various issues with app-based taxi services like Uber and Ola.

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RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has appealed to the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to regulate surge pricing limits for taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber by framing strict rules under Motor Vehicle Act 2019. SJM in its communication to Gadkari on Tuesday said the taxi aggregators Uber and Ola, who have launched their operations in India in 2014-15 to provide lower cost and convenient taxi services have started profiteering under the ambit of surge pricing.

Further, SJM has brought to the minister's notice that in last two weeks it has received screenshots where a fare of Rs 2,000 was quoted in Mumbai for a six-minute ride which is outrageous and plain profiteering by these platforms.

SJM's all India co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said a recently released public survey has indicated that consumers from across the country are facing various issues with app-based taxi services like Uber and Ola.

Mahajan said SJM learnt that the ministry is in the process of framing the regulatory rules for app-based taxi aggregators under the Motor Vehicle Act 2019. ''As per media reports, the ministry is considering allowing surge pricing to the extent of three times of normal fare, which has also been permitted in the guidelines issued by MoRTH in Dec 2016. It is our request that the taxi aggregator rules under Motor Vehicle Act 2019 are made keeping the above public interest in mind,'' he noted.

Mahajan said if the rules are not framed it would be an unpopular move and it may risk the states coming up with their own rules and setting lower limits of surge pricing for taxi aggregators. He added that SJM has sought meeting with Gadkari to discuss the issue at length.

According to Mahajan, some of the findings of the said survey included people want surge pricing to be capped at not higher than 25% across the country. In case of ride cancellation by the taxi app company or the driver, Rs 100 or an amount equivalent to 20% of the fare should be credited in the customer's account as a penalty. However, he argued that currently the apps levy a penalty when a customer cancels a ride but the same doesn't work the other way around.

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