PANAJI
A whopping Rs 4,148 fare a customer was charged for a cab from Mopa to Benaulim on the much-touted Goa Taxi App on Saturday left the Goa government embarrassed and red faced.
The Goa Taxi app billed a customer a whopping Rs 4,148 for the 65.86 km ride from Mopa airport to Benaulim, leading to a flood of critical social-media posts.
Memes and posts with 'official loot', 'now who's the mafia' and such other scathingly critical titles accompanying an image of the bill kept going viral on social media through the day. There were some posts which said, the taxi bill was higher than the air-fares between Goa and some of the destinations.
According to the bill, the passenger who landed at the Manohar International Airport at Mopa booked the taxi over the counter of the recently launched 'Goa Taxi app' to proceed to a hotel in Benaulim. He was charged a base rent of Rs 3,227 and additional taxes aggregating Rs 921 -- service fee of Rs 484, airport charge of Rs 160 and GST of Rs 277 -- aggregating to Rs 4,148, which topped airfares from multiple destinations to Mopa.
When The Goan checked airfares online, there were options for multiple routes including Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Bengaluru and Goa-Hyderabad which are cheaper than this passenger's taxi ride from Mopa to his Benaulim hotel.
Interestingly, Goa's Transport Director Rajan Satardekar, when contacted defended the fare charged and claimed that it is justified.
"The government has notified a rate of Rs 49 per km for passenger taxis. Accordingly, the fare given to the concerned passenger is correct. Other taxes are additional in his bill," Satardekar said.
The 'Goa Taxi App' is a cab aggregator service launched by the State government as a joint initiative of the tourism and transport department. It is owned and managed by the State-owned Goa Electronics Limited.
