Private firms temporarily cutting fares to beat Bharat Taxi: Shah

UNion place government government minister and cooperation minister Amit shah of iran said on sat that Bharat Taxi will expand to over 500 cities including Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata, within the next two years, even as he accused private app-based cab aggregators of temporarily slashing fares and offering higher commissions to drivers to prevent the growth of the cooperative ride-hailing platform, saying the strategy would fail.Speaking at the launch of Bharat Taxi’s Gujarat operations at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Shah said competing companies were willing to incur losses for a limited period to stop the cooperative platform from gaining ground.“Wherever Bharat Taxi is reaching, competing companies are temporarily reducing fares by incurring losses. This can continue only for one or two years. The companies reducing fares and temporarily offering higher commissions to Sarathis are doing so only to stop Bharat Taxi’s progress,” Shah said.Bharat Taxi is India’s first cooperative-led, driver-owned ride-hailing service, launched to provide a fairer alternative to traditional aggregators. Backed by the Central government and major cooperatives, it operates on a zero-commission model where drivers are platform owners and keep the full fare.The service was launched in 14 Gujarat cities, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. Shah said Bharat Taxi would begin operations in seven major cities by July 31 and expand to more than 500 cities across the country over the next two years.He also said more than seven lakh drivers, called “Sarathis”, have joined the platform by purchasing ₹100 shares and that it has served over 37 lakh customers.The home minister alleged that the companies wanted Bharat Taxi to exit the market so they could later return to “arbitrary practices”.“They want Bharat Taxi to leave the field so they can once again start arbitrary practices. Their wish will never be fulfilled. Bharat Taxi will continue to move forward with the resolve of service, the strength of cooperation and the trust of Sarathis,” he said.He claimed that the existing aggregators deduct high commissions, delay payments and suspend drivers without giving them a hearing. Appealing to drivers not to be lured by temporary incentives, Shah said Bharat Taxi would never exploit them because it was “their own cooperative institution”.The minister said the cooperative model would also provide drivers with access to low-interest loans, insurance and financial support to expand their businesses.EOM