Transport Minister: 57 cases of taxi’s charging higher fares investigated

Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Aishath Nahula on Tuesday stated that the ministry has investigated 57 complaints of taxis charging a higher fare than the one set by the authority.

During the Parliament session on Tuesday, the Parliamentarian for Thimarafushi constituency Abdulla Riyaz questioned Minister Nahula regarding complaints of difficulty in attaining taxi services in Male’ and Hulhumale’.

He inquired about the government's plans on resolving this and making taxi services easily available for customers.

Responding to the questions, the minister said that a hotline was established for customers to submit complaints regarding the difficulties in getting taxis. She added that they are investigating the complaints received via calls and emails, and were working on resolving those issues at the earliest possible.

Additionally, she highlighted that with the ongoing issue of taxis charging higher fares than the ones set by the ministry, a committee was put together to analyze the complaints. From a total of 57 complaints, 15 cases were forwarded to Maldives Police Services, she added.

Furthermore, Minister Nahula said that taxi centres have been instructed to take the statement of those taxis that go against the regulations.

Speaking about the taxi application, she said that developers have been instructed to make updates so that the passengers’ destination will not be seen from it.

Moreover, they were also instructed to update information on the applicator and have it visible to the Police in addition to the Transport Ministry.