Taxi industry will be subsidised from April next year, says Fikile Mbalula

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said from April next year, the government would implement a subsidy for the taxi industry.

Mbalula said his department would work with Treasury and the taxi sector.

The three-day national taxi lekgotla concluded on Saturday.

Mbalula said the taxi industry was characterized as an informal sector and now the government was looking at formalizing it.

He said come next year April it’s going to be a ‘new dawn’ as the sector would be subsidized.

“The participation of this industry in the subsidy scheme is no longer a pipe dream, but a realizable goal we intend to see becoming reality in the coming financial year.”

Transport director-general Alec Moemi said currently government provided direct and indirect subsidies, such as the public transport operators grant.

Moemi said they were looking at subsidizing vehicles and then would continue to explore the possibility of tax rebates.

“For now as a start, we are looking at the commuter benefiting from the entire scheme by keeping the overheads of the industry lower — that is the path we going with and how this will also impact on the household expenditure.”

GOVT PLANNING ON REGULATING E-HAILING INDUSTRY

Mbalula said the government did indeed intend on regulating Uber, Bolt, and other e-hailing services in South Africa.
Mbalula said the registration of associations and effective regulation of e-hailing services were urgent tasks that the government needs attend to.

He added e-hailing has been operating without regulation and said this had been a major point of difference between government and the taxi industry.

“There is no Uber or taxi that is going to go up and down here unregulated. This lekgotla empowers us. E-hailing has been operating in our country without any regulations.”

-EWN

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