Chart of the Day: The road ministry has advised state governments to put a ceiling on taxi fares in states, saying that the fares charged during surge pricing doesn't follow current fare structures of Rs. 20-24/km.
However on average, fare rates charged by taxi aggregators are lower, as can be seen in the chart.
If aggregators are indeed gouging customers and surge pricing is frequent, governments should crack down. But we have yet to see data on surge fares crossing the ceiling - governments have mentioned 'customer complaints' but provided no detailed numbers.
The government needs to release data on extortionary fares charged to customers, as well as average taxi fares customers paid before Ola and Uber came into the picture. This is an important step before cracking down on aggregators and favoring traditional taxi services.
