Issuance of taxi bills a law in two months: NCRS

20 April 2018 06:05 pm

Meters with the facility to issue a printed bill has been made compulsory for three-wheeler taxis from today and it will be legalised in two months, the National Council for Road Safety (NCRS) said.

NCRS Chairman Dr. Sisira Kodagoda told a media conference that it was the responsibility of three-wheeler drivers to issue bills to trishaw users.

“This is not an attempt to collect fines for the Government, but an attempt to regulate three-wheeler taxi system and to minimise issues between the three-wheeler driver and the passenger,” he said. “This will encourage drivers to fix meters in the three-wheel taxis.”

However, the existing taxi meters do not have the facility to print bills.

“Three-wheelers which already have meters do not need to buy new meters but there should find a way of issuing a bill,” Dr. Kodagoda said. “Several three-wheeler associations used to issue receipts including with driver name, distance, phone number and total hire amount. Those persons do not need to adopt the new system because their receipts are acceptable.”

Dr. Kodagoda said two more months was needed to discuss this with outstation three-wheeler drivers associations, while arranging facilities for them to buy the new meter system,” he said. “After holding discussions with Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, this will be implemented as a law at national level." (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)