SPAD: Taxi tyre vouchers not for all brands

Its chairman Syed Hamid Albar says taxi drivers would still be required to pay for workmanship and other related costs.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government’s RM520 tyre subsidy for taxi drivers is not for the purchase of all types of tyres, said Land Public Transport Commission chairman Syed Hamid Albar.

He said that taxi drivers would be required to pay a higher price if they wanted a bigger sized tyre apart from the recommended Goodyear and Continental 13-inch tyre.

“Taxi drivers still need to pay for tyre balancing or for replacing valves,” he said.

Several taxi drivers recently complained that tyre retailers had increased the prices after the government announced vouchers under the Bantuan Teksi 1Malaysia (BT1M) programme.

“Two months ago we can get tyres between RM120 to RM130 inclusive of workmanship but now we are required to add RM15 for every tyre changed,” said taxi driver D Ragothman.

Responding to queries on this matter today, Syed Hamid said: “When we called for tyre manufacturers to join the programme, only Goodyear and Continental responded and agreed to charge RM130 for a 13-inch tyre.”

In a related matter, Syed Hamid said SPAD is still studying a mechanism on how to distribute taxi permits directly to taxi drivers.

He also said that one of the mechanisms they were looking at was to activate about 7,000 dormant permits, held by taxi companies, and giving them to individual drivers.

“The individual taxi drivers who get a direct permit may need to set up a company to make it easier for monitoring but the matter is still under study,” said the former minister.

Last month, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced the government would issue direct permits to drivers instead of taxi companies in a move to win the hearts of the taxi drivers.

Currently, there about 66,000 taxi permits issued by the government to companies and individuals.