Goa: No tax should be levied while notifying taxi stand at Mopa, say operators

Green Field Mopa Airport Taxi Association Pernem have cautioned the State government not to levy any fees or tax while announcing or notifying the taxi stand at the Manohar International Airport at Mopa or else, they would oppose the move.

The association put forth this demand while submitting a memorandum to the Pernem Deputy District Collector Deepak Vaingankar.

Bhaskar Narulkar of Green Field Mopa Airport Taxi Association said the government should not levy any fees or tax from the locals who have lost their land for the airport project while allotting them a spot at the taxi stand at the airport.

“The taxi operators may agree to some fixed deposit, but no tax or fee should be levied by allotting a counter. The government has announced that only 200 taxi operators will be issued permits. But more than 1,300 have purchased taxis in this area. The government should allot a taxi stand for all of these operators and start the counter,” said Narulkar.

“If Mopa Airport will charge fees for a private taxi stand, and if the same rules and conditions are applied for the Blue Taxi stand, then we do not want the Blue Taxi stand. Instead, let the government declare a Black-Yellow taxi stand and we are willing to pay the deposit for the counter. But we are not willing to pay Rs 5 lakh or Rs 125 per trip, said Narulkar.

Prasad Shahapurkar said a memorandum has been submitted to the deputy collector Deepak Vaingankar.

“The deputy collector had requested us to withdraw our agitation and he had promised to resolve the issue as early as possible. Accordingly, we withdrew our agitation and we submitted a memorandum and reminded him of his promise,” said Shahapurkar.

Uday Mahale warned that taxi operators were willing to restart the agitation if their demands fall on deaf ears or remain unfulfilled.