Uber case: Changes in law to accomodate online taxi services as it employs thousands

NEW DELHI: The government is contemplating changes to the legal framework to accommodate webbased taxi services as it realises that bans across states – prompted by a home ministry advisory – may have sent across a message that the NDA dispensation was strangling a sector which has huge potential to create substantial employment.

“We cannot have the attitude that this government is the master of all it surveys and that when we are in power nobody can move an inch without our permission,” a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government said.

The damage control moves include ensuring that web-based taxis are back in action soon by helping them get the necessary licenses. The Ministry of Home Affairs is said to be working on simplifying the legal framework to accommodate web-based taxi aggregators whose business model is not covered by existing regulations governing Radio Taxis, which use call centres to link customers to vehicles.

There have been clear divisions within the Narendra Modi government on whether web-based taxis should be banned. Some of the senior ministers are of the view that the Centre has no jurisdiction in the matter.

“Transport licensing is a state subject. Since when did the Centre get the right to interfere in this matter? The Centre should not meddle in it,” the minister said.

In the wake of widespread criticism of the advisory by the Centre to state governments that they should ban web-based taxis, union Home Ministry sources had underlined that the suggestion had nothing to do with the rape of a woman by a Uber taxi driver and was instead issued as these taxi aggregators were operating without a license.

Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Chandigarh have banned web-based aggregators after the advisory was issued.

Sources said there is a view that “enough damage has already been done” and the issue should not be allowed to escalate further as it creates the impression that the government is not business-friendly.