Failure to pay the dues, the State Transport Authority (STA) has issued show-cause notice to taxi aggregators Uber and Ola.
According to the notice, the aggregator companies were granted license to operate taxi service in Chandigarh under the “Chandigarh Administration On Demand Transportation Aggregator Rule 2017” and the licensee are liable to deposit Rs 1,000 entry fee per quarter per vehicle in respect of vehicles registered in Punjab and Haryana carrying “All India Permit”. However, the companies have only deposited entry fee of few vehicles upto March 31, 2022 and balance amount remains undeposited.
The STA stated that the audit carried out by a team of the Principal Director of Audit (Central) pointed out non-realisation of entry fee amounting to Rs 1.34 crore under Aggregator Rules 2017 and stated therein that the aggregator licence holders had not deposited the entry fees of the vehicles registered in Punjab and Haryana attached to their companies for 2020-21.
The STA stated that the companies willfully failed to abide by the provisions of Aggregator Policy Rule 2017 by not depositing the entry fees as required under Rule 6(2) of said Rule 2017.
On this, the STA issued show-cause notice to the companies as to why licence granted under Aggregator Rule 2017 shall not be suspended or cancelled and the bank guarantee deposited by you shall not be forfeited in favour of the government.
“Your reply, if any must reach the office of the STA within 15 days from the date of receipt of the notice, failing which it will be presumed that you have nothing to say in your defence and action as deemed fit shall be initiated against you as per rule,” read the notice.
An official of the STA said that as per Rule 6 of the Aggregator Rules, only those taxis can be included in the license, which paid an entry fee at Rs 1,000 per quarter. “However, the companies have consistently and repeatedly flouted this condition of the license and included taxi drivers in the license,” he added.
A taxi driver said the STA had signed the agreement with the aggregator companies and not with the individual taxi drivers on paying the fee and in such a condition, the companies were liable to pay the entry fee, whereas the companies were forcing them to pay the fee.
Recently, the Tricity Cab and Auto United Federation went on a strike in protest against the entry fee.
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