Taxi Fare Increasing 15-20 Percent Biannually

Taxi Fare Increasing 15-20 Percent Biannually. October. 07, 2003 22:38. by Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com.

Taxi fares for the Seoul area and other big cities will be raised yearly by 15-20 percent starting this coming July. In addition, the government will support the full amount of oil tax increase for buses and taxi-like freight cars for a year starting in June of next year. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced on October 7 at the System Improvement Committee for Transportation Business held at the Gwachon Government Complex that they have adopted the proposition to the government. The government plans to finalize the policy at the National Administration Current Policy Coordination Meeting on October 11. According to the committee’s new plan, the government will support an extra 50 percent of the increased amount this July for a year, as well as exercising the existing policy of supporting 50 percent of the increased money for buses and taxies. After July of next year, they can be compensated for the increase in fare. The government needs 51 billion won for the buses and 98 billion won for the taxies, altogether 149 billion won in order to support the new plan of extra aides.

The Committee also has decided to differentiate the fare system according to the city’s scale that taxies can be a high-class transportation method in big cities while being a public transportation method in smaller cities. As for the first stage of this plan, the increased amount of oil taxes and salary raise will be compensated with a fare increase for the taxies in big cities such as Seoul, in July of next year; the fare will continue to increase by 15-20 percent every other year. The Committee will also adopt the policy of ‘Fare Premium,’ that of which charges according to the number of passengers some time next year for some model cases and accordingly, decide on the overall implementation after 2005. In addition, the Committee will promote the policy of when obtaining a private taxi license, they should recognize the experiences of the construction and machine workers as drivers of dump or mixer trucks with a heavy-duty driver’s license.