BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has notified a new fee structure fixing minimum and maximum fare for taxis operated by aggregators.
Depending on the cost of the vehicle, four categories of fares have been fixed.
According to a notification, for category D cabs costing up to Rs 5 lakh for the first four km, charge will be Rs 44 and for kms subsequent to that the charge can be set by aggregators between minimum of Rs 11 and maximum of Rs 22 per km.
Similarly, for category C cabs costing between Rs 5 and 10 lakh, for the first 4 km, charge will be Rs 52 and thereafter it will be minimum of Rs 12 to maximum of Rs 24 per km.
While for B category cabs costing between Rs 10 and 16 lakh, for the the first 4 km, charge will be Rs 68 and thereafter it will be minimum of Rs 16 to maximum of Rs 34 per km; For A category cabs costing above 16 lakh, for the first 4 km, charge will be Rs 80 and thereafter it will be minimum of Rs 20 to maximum of Rs 45 per km.
The notification also mentions that for the first 20 minutes there will be no waiting charge and post that a charge of Rs 10 for every 15 minutes.
The new fare structure will come into effect immediately for air conditioned city taxis operating under Karnataka on-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators rules, 2016 within the radius of 25 km of Bengaluru city.
The notification states that the measure is being taken keeping in mind fuel price hike, cost of vehicle and maintenance cost, among other things.
Commenting on the move Uber India GM - South Christian Freese said they welcomed the efforts taken by the state government to revise the existing fare structure, keeping in mind the interest of hundreds of thousands of driver partners.
"The revision will help improve their earning potential and create sustainable livelihood opportunities," he said.
The GM said while it is a step in the right direction, they believed that dynamic pricing would help increase reliability for riders and improve asset utilization for driver partners.
"We remain committed to engaging and working with the relevant authorities to enable regulations that can enhance the future of urban mobility in the state," he added.