Following a new regulation being introduced by the Lagos State Government, customers are set to pay more for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Bolt.
This development is coming barely weeks after the Lagos State Government increased LAGBUS fares by 46 per cent.
The new regulation for e-hailing taxing services is set to take effect from August 20, 2020.
This is according to a document titled, ‘Guidelines for Online Hailing Business Operation of Taxi in Lagos State 2020’ issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation.
According to reports, Part 4.1 subsection 5 of the document titled, ‘e-Hailing Taxi Operation’, all drivers must pay 10 per cent generated on every trip to the Lagos State Government.
The document partly read :
All operators of e-hailing taxi service must pay the state government 10 per cent service tax on each transaction paid by passengers to the operators.
It was learnt that the new policy also mandates all e-hailing taxi firms to pay 25 million Naira annually to the state government per 1,001 vehicles for an operational licence while they will pay ten million Naira annually for renewal on every 1, 001 car in their pool.
New firms would also pay a ten million Naira provisional fee to the state government before starting operations.
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This implies that the state government will collect taxes, licensing fees and then a percentage from every trip completed on these platforms.
A report on TechCabal said:
While operators kick against this provision, if it goes ahead to be implemented on August 20, the real losers will be the customers. Uber and Bolt will pass this 10 per cent cost along to end-users, making cab fares more expensive.
In the meantime, the state government has made it compulsory for all ride-hailing services to make their database accessible to the government.
The new policy comes barely months after motorcycle-hailing services such as Gokada, MaxNG, and O’Ride, were forced to stop operations following a policy introduced by the Babajide-Sanwo-Olu administration which cost investors millions of dollars in investment.
The state government has been accused of high levies and double taxation which has often affected start-ups.
