Dubai transport authorities have imposed fees for private taxi services using mobile applications.
Dubai, UAE. The Dubai Roads and Transport Committee has introduced additional fees for private taxi passengers who book trips through the Careem mobile app on smartphones.
According to Careem taxi service, Dubai’s transport authorities have already begun to charge an additional fee of three dirhams (US $ 0.81) on the eve of January 23, 2017. The company said that the Dubai Roads and Transport Committee (RTA) has introduced new regulations for private services that set additional fees in its favor.
It should be noted that the closest Careem competitor - the Uber service - has not yet announced additional fees, but said that this issue is under study. "Fees are an integral part of the new regulatory system, but we will conduct a study and determine the effective amount of the fee, which we will report in the next three months. Our goal is to make the Uber product available to everyone - both for customers and drivers," the service said. Taxi.
In December, the Dubai government announced that the emirate’s budget for 2017 included a cost of 47.3 billion dirhams (US $ 12.9 billion) and a deficit of 2.5 billion dirhams, which is 0.6% of Emirate gross domestic product. Public spending this year will increase by 2.6% compared to 2016, and revenue from fees and duties will increase by 6%.
