In a first, the State government, on Wednesday, notified maximum and minimum fare slabs for taxis operated by aggregators, such as Uber and Ola, based on the cost of the car. Instead of adhering to the conventional practice of setting fares depending on whether a taxi is air-conditioned or not, slabs have been fixed based on the cost of the vehicle. The notification states that the revised fares will come into effect with immediate effect.
Vehicles have been slotted into four categories from A to D. At the lower end are the ‘D’ category vehicles that cost less than ₹5 lakh in which passengers will have to shell out ₹44 for the first four kilometres, after which the per kilometre fare ranges from a minimum of ₹11 to a maximum of ₹22.
At the other end are luxury vehicles priced over ₹16 lakh, for which passengers will have to pay ₹80 for the first four kilometres, and thereafter a minimum of ₹20 and a maximum of ₹45 per kilometre.
The notification states that fare revision will be applicable for taxi aggregators covered under the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Rules, 2016.
"The notification has barred taxi aggregators from charging anything below than the minimum fare or above the maximum fare. They can continue with dynamic pricing within the fare bandwidth fixed by the government," said Transport Commissioner B. Dayananda.
In other words, aggregators cannot exceed the maximum fare even when there is peak demand, and conversely cannot drop rates below the minimum fare to attract passengers.
Mr. Dayananda added that the fare revision has been done keeping in mind business operation of taxi aggregators that work on the 'demand and supply' module. All stakeholders — passengers, drivers and taxi aggregators — were consulted prior to finalising the fare structure.
Previous revision was in June 2013
The government had last revised the fare in June 2013. The fare for AC taxis was fixed at ₹80 for the first four kilometres and ₹19.50 for subsequent kilometre. For non-AC taxis, ₹70 was the fare for the first four kilometres and ₹14.50 per kilometre thereafter.
