New Taxi regulation under discussion

The Legislative Assembly (AL) was gathered yesterday to discuss the new taxi regulation currently being prepared by the government. An earlier government intention for the bill to enter into the legislative process in May never transpired.
The initiative was started by a solicitation to the AL by the lawmakers Mak Soi Kun and Zheng Anting to debate on the matter of public interest that has been gathering both support and criticism from several sectors of society.
In his presentation to the plenary, legislator Mak Soi Kun expressed concerns, namely regarding the penalties to be applied to taxi drivers at fault and the taxi license owners, as well as the use of “undercover passive agents” and a “voluntary sound recording system.”
Many legislators were keen to address the issue. Ella Lei remarked that the “bad image” built up over the years is in her opinion “due to a number of bad taxi drivers that tarnish the image of the whole profession.” Many other legislators shared the opinion.
As for the government side, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário informed that a public consultation on the topic was conducted in 2014 and since then “we have been making some improvements, helped by police actions that also contributed to improve the quality of the taxi service.”
Eventually the secretary also agreed with the lawmakers including Ella Lei, expressing his hopes that “we don’t focus too much on the sanctions as not all taxi drivers have problems.” He also claimed that the new licenses issued and to start operating shortly will increase the number of taxis from the current 1,400 until the 1,600 expected to be in operation by the end of this year.
On the other hand, lawmaker Chan Iek Lap did not agree with the idea of having more taxis on the roads.
“More licenses will further jeopardize the survival of taxi drivers,” he claimed.
In response, Zheng Anting said that “Macau isn’t lacking in the number of taxis but in their distribution,” clarifying that, “there are places with many taxis and others with none.”
But the matter in which lawmakers are furthest away from reaching an agreement is in regard to whether penalties should be applied to license owners whose taxi drivers are found at fault. Mak Soi Kun at the end of the debate counted [at least] “eight legislators that do not agree with [the implementation of] this measure.” RM