The government is going to reopen the bidding process for the ‘special taxi services’ licence, namely taxis that provide services via call bookings. A total of 100 to 150 licences would be handed out. The announcement was made by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo Rosario, yesterday after meeting with legislators of the special committee on land and public concessions. The authorities pledged that after the new taxis are put into service they would try to guarantee that the number of taxis in operation on a daily basis in the SAR would be around 1,200 to 1,300, which is higher than the number of black taxis and yellow taxis (previous on-call taxis) before. The Secretary also revealed that the authorities would continue negotiating a ‘contract transform’ with the bus companies. This follows a report issued by the Commission Against Corruption in November 2013. The report said that it is illegal for the government to sign a contract based on ‘providing services’ with the bus companies; rather, contracts should be established on a ‘public project and public service concession’ basis. Mr. Rosario said that the SAR Government has been negotiating with regard to the new contracts with TCM and Transmac. He added that the discussion with TCM is almost finished and that the new contract is expected to be signed within this year. The discussion process with Transmac is relatively slower and more details would be released in due course. With regard to the adjustment of bus service charge, Mr. Rosario said the government would talk with the three bus companies together.
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