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Friday, December 28, 1973
TAXI FARE INCREASE APPLICATION BEING PROCESSED
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The Transport Department today indicated that the government may
prove sympathetic to a request by Kowloon taxi operators to increase their
fares on the basis of more recent figures supplied by a taxi operators
association.
A spokesman stressed, however, that the decision lay with the
Governor-in-Council and it was not possible to say more at this stage.
Commenting on recent statements by some Kowloon taxi operators, the
spokesman said that hotheaded demands for time limits and demonstrations by
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some of the operators were pointless and would not affect the issue.
"Instead of attracting public sympathy, such demands are more likely
to antagonise people," he warned.
The mistaken impression among some of the operators that the
government was blocking a legitimate demand for a fare increase, he said,
was unfortunate and the department was anxious to dispel this wrong view.
"Recent statements in the press about giving the government a
time limit within which to agree to a fare increase," he added, "were based
on misunderstandings."
He explained that a year ago a taxi operators association proposed
to raise the level of Kowloon taxi fares to that of Hong Kong taxis, on the
grounds that it cost Kowloon operators more to run a taxi.
The Kowloon taxi operators were then asked to provide audited
accounts of a few typical taxi operators, to substantiate their claim and to
indicate what level of increase might be justified.
/"But the
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