I REFER to the letter from J. Wilson (South China Morning Post, April 29), and would like to assure him that the Executive Council is not considering doubling taxi fares in the near future.
The policy on taxi fares recently endorsed by the Executive Council covers two main areas.
First, the policy of maintaining a fare differential of five to seven times between urban taxis and other modes of public transport, and three to four times between New Territories taxis and other modes, should be maintained.
Second, like all other modes of public transport, taxi fares should be front-loaded (that is, the rate of flagfall charge should be higher than the subsequent incremental charge).
Taxi fares for short trips should be increased gradually to maintain the fare differential.
The objective is to regulate taxi demand, such that taxi fares, even on a shared basis and even for short trips, are not cheaper than other public transport fares.
Under this policy, there are no plans to double taxi fares.