Government will apply tougher regulations to taxi-hailing apps Uber and Cabify

  • ECO News
  • 12 July 2018

Portugal's President vetoed the first proposal of a 2% tax saying that there was no balance between the taxi-hailing apps and the taxi drivers. PS and PSD agreed in a 5% tax.

Tougher new legislations fall upon Uber and similar platforms. PS and PSD agreed upon new rules anticipating the companies will pay 5% in contributions from the net profit obtained during each hailed drive.

Both parties reached an agreement. During each trip, the apps should contribute with 5%, in an attempt to overhaul the inequalities felt in the sector and also to respond to the President’s concerns on the issue.

Uber regulation will be applied to the other taxi-hailing apps such as Cabify and Taxify. The first version of this document was released after over a year of negotiations but the President vetoed the proposal arguing that there was no balance between the taxi-hailing apps and the taxi drivers themselves. The tax was only 2%.

 

Up until now the parties were advocating for a contribution of between 0,1% and 2% but have agreed to push it upwards to the 5% stake. 5% was PSD’s initial stance, and the parliamentary negotiations made the party revise the value and lower it to 2%.

The renewed 5% measurement appeared at the end of the debate over the document’s presentation at the Commission for Economy, Innovation, and Public Contracts. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considers this amendment essential given the agreement between both parties and sent out a clear statement: that he does not consider the current regulations to be fair game.

This contribution is supposed to compensate for the administrative and regulatory costs attached to the effect these services have on urban mobility – the revenue from this process will be shared between the Public Transportation Services Fund (40%), the Mobility and Transports Authority (30%) and the Mobility and Transports Institute.

Dinheiro Vivo, a portuguese online newspaper, notes that PS will clarify this Thursday in plenary whether there is or not a possibility for taxi companies to establish partnerships with these platforms. In order for this to happen, they must use different cars while executing their taxi services and the mobile-app-related services, as well as they will not be allowed to use the tax benefits attached to the taxi-driving industry.

Other cities worldwide such as London have likewise applied tougher rules on these apps, as governments struggle to adapt to the substantial new challenges brought up by these mobility apps.