The government’s plan to bring back an organised taxicab service to Dhaka and Chittagong has remained only on paper, although according to initial plans, new taxicabs were supposed to have hit the roads by October.
Sources said a disagreement over “conditions” among the importers and the government has kept the deal from seeing daylight.
In May, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) signed separate memorandums of understating (MoU) with Trust Transport Service Ltd – sister concern of the Army Welfare Trust (AWT) – and Toma Group – a private company – for importing and introducing taxicabs in Dhaka and Chittagong.
Each of these companies was given permission to import 250 cars on condition that they would fully obey the regulations in the Taxicab Service Guidelines of 2010.
According to the guidelines, among other conditions, a taxicab operator must have a paid up capital of Tk25m, its own parking space with maintenance workshop, own radio communication network, vehicle tracking system and training facilities for drivers.
The BRTA also fixed fares at Tk80 for the first two kilometre and Tk40 for next each kilometre. The waiting charge was fixed at Tk7 per minute.
On July 29, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader at an inter-ministerial meeting said the new taxicabs were likely to run in the two cities from this October.
AWT Welfare Director Maj Kamruzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune: “We filed applications to the secretaries of the communication and finance ministries requesting them to consider Trust Transport Service’s paid up capital as ours and give us permission for importing cars. We made the request on the ground that Trust Transport Service is a sister concern of AWT and therefore we do not need separate funds.
We also sent an application to the chairman of the National Board of Revenue asking for reduced in import duty for new taxicabs,” he said.
On August 14, AWT submitted an application to the BRTA requesting lower registration fees of cabs and higher per km fare.
Kamruzzaman said: “The import has not yet started because of a delay in getting approvals from the ministries. After getting approvals, we will import new cabs. In a meeting held three days ago, the communications minister responded positively.”
According to BRTA officials, the two companies were given permission to import 1500cc cars manufactured not more than three years ago. The registration fee for each car was fixed at Tk60,000. The yellow cabs have to be fully air-conditioned and the green cars non-air-conditioned. Every cab was also deemed to have global positioning system (GPS) in place so that they could be easily traced.
Joint Secretary of the communications ministry Jamal Uddin said: “We have received the application that the AWT has filed. Processing is going on at the moment. We hope to get new taxicabs by the end of this year.”
The other assigned company – Toma Group – has placed five of its own conditions with the communications ministry for approval before starting the business.
Toma Group’s conditions are: providing parking spaces at 10 important places in Dhaka; immunity for cabs from police requisition; permission to import cars with engines higher than 1500cc; canceling the import duty; and fixing fares at Tk100-130 for the first two kilometers, Tk60 for every next and Tk8 per minute waiting charge.
Anisur Rahman, deputy managing director of Toma Group, told the Dhaka Tribune that the company would start importing the cars as soon as they got confirmation about their conditions from the ministry.
Communications Secretary Jamal Uddin said they were also looking into the conditions that Toma Group had placed.
However, BRTA Director (Engineering) Saiful Haque said: “Toma Group’s conditions are illogical. They did not give any condition when we gave them permission to import cars.”