New taxi fares have been announced in Oman by the Ministry of Transport and Communications

Dr Ahmed al Futtaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, issued a Ministerial decision on tariff for orange and white taxi services, including shared services.

As per the Article 1 of the resolution, the fare paid by the passenger is fixed at 300bz at the start of the trip, after which customers will be charged 130 bz for every kilometer and at least RO1 for each trip.

In case of multiple passengers, the fares shall be divided among them in one trip.

The Ministry said, “As part of the implementation of the Land Transport Law No. 102016, ministerial decision No. 952018 stipulates the transport fares for public taxis. In case of more than one passenger, customer will have to share the metre amount and 50 baiza will be charged per minute for waiting.”

Article 2 states that 50 bz per minute will be charged for waiting while the first five minutes will be free.

Article 3 states that the taxi driver is obliged to operate the meter at the start of the journey.

Trip will be deemed free if the taxi driver refused to operate the meter.

Article 4 states that the decision shall be published in the official gazette and shall be effective six months after the  date of its publication. According to a ministerial decree, all orange and white taxis in Oman will also get electronic metres by June 2019.

The decision was based on the Land Transport Law and its Executive Regulations, which were revealed in November this year.