PIL seeks intervention of HC to arrest surge pricing of app cabs

Kolkata: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed at the Calcutta High Court on Monday, pleading for its interference in regulating the fares of app cab companies like Ola and Uber.

The PIL was filed by advocate Soumya Shubro Roy, in the division bench headed by Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya. Roy had prayed before the high court to come up with some measures to bring the app cabs under the ambit of the Motor Vehicles Act, so that they cannot levy high tariffs upon passengers whenever they wish.

"My intention is to have a standard rate of these app cabs throughout the day. In most cases, it has been found that fares in these cabs are double for a certain distance in comparison to the yellow taxis. This is not at all desirable. The passengers are greatly inconvenienced because of such high fares in the name of surge pricing by the app cabs," Roy said.

The matter may come up for hearing in the court on Friday. It may be mentioned that the state Transport department has already written a letter to these two aggregators, urging them to submit a report of their policy regarding fixation of surge prices.

They have also been instructed to have a basic minimum fare similar to that of yellow cabs and put them out in the public domain. The state is bent upon putting a cap in the surge pricing of app cab aggregators like Ola and Uber.

"There have been a lot of complaints about high charging, particularly during natural calamities when distressed commuters need maximum humanitarian support. We have sought a reply on what prompts them to charge in an arbitrary manner and have made it clear to them that such action will not be entertained," a senior official of the Transport department said.

It may be mentioned that random checks by the Transport department at different areas at different times, particularly during rain and storm, have seen rates going sky-high. "Surge price can't be elastic beyond limit. There are chances of manipulating the situation by going off the system collectively to create a massive demand-supply gap and engineer a surge pricing. This is not desirable," the official maintained.