THE Guyana Taxi Service Association (GTSA) is calling on the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to honour an agreement made in 2010 with the Government. The arrangement at reference, made with the Jagdeo administration, was that those operations which complied with what is loosely known as ‘the yellow cab initiative’ would be granted certain concessions.

In 2009, former President Bharrat Jagdeo had met with owners of taxi services to discuss the regularization of taxis countrywide, and had promised that those who complied would be granted incentives in the form of waivers in fees for revenue licences, a two-year free radio spectrum, and a 25 per cent reduction on excise duties payable on all vehicles imported for taxi usage.

However, GTSA is now bemoaning the fact that after nearly three years, most taxi services are still waiting to have their applications for the free two-year radio spectrum granted.

According to the organisation’s secretary, even though taxi service operators are grateful for the 25 per cent reduction on excise tax for imported vehicles, taxi services are coerced under a clause stipulating that they have to use the vehicle for hire for five years.

“We know of services that have applied for frequency licences as part of the benefit of going corporate yellow, and are still waiting for it to be approved. We have approached the Frequency Management for our licences and were advised to submit our information to the GRA,” she said, adding that those taxi services she referred continue to receive invoices from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to pay for the frequency.

She further opined that their applications appear to be on hold for the last three years. “All we get is that they are going to look into the matter, but nothing has been done! So far, we have sent in three applications.”

The Association noted that it was not feasible for services to keep a taxi working on the road for five years, since it places an additional pressure on them to compete with new services, especially taxis that refused to buy in to the yellow cab initiative.

“Every couple months a new service would start up,” said Mulshankar Persaud, executive member of the GTSA. He bemoaned that, “It is the duty of taxis to drop customers to the spot. Say, for example, we have to drop a customer in Sophia, then we suffer the blunt because the roads are not good in Sophia. But we can’t behave like the buses and drop them (off) anywhere.
“In those five years, ours cars would be damaged and competitors will have new ones. Who wants to drive a car for hire for five years? People wouldn’t want to travel in an old taxi! So all we are asking is that that five years be reduced, so that we can upgrade our services for our customers and keep the foreseen tourism glow up to standard.”

According to Persaud, there is a major difference between using a vehicle for private purposes for ten years and using a vehicle “that goes through potholes” for five years. He added that taxi service operators were also promised concessions on spare parts and paint, once the taxi was attached to a service, but “it never materialized.”

In 2010, a motion was passed to grant concessions to taxis repainted corporate yellow, and the administration had declared that those vehicles would be given entrée to government transportation contracts. However, in that same year, the Government Information Agency (GINA) had released a statement that concessions being granted to taxis which complied with the corporate yellow initiative were conditional on the fulfillment of general obligations marked by the GRA and the Guyana Police Force.