Taxicab fares in Oman will soon be set by the government, and all taxi operating in the Sultanate should display a meter.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications issued a ministerial order regulating the activities of taxi operators and car rental services under the Land Transport Law. The ministry will determine the fares for all modes of land transport, including taxis, after studying the supply and demand, operational costs, including fuel prices. The passenger will only pay the fixed fare after being dropped off.
The ministry also declared that all vehicles should be equipped with a fire extinguisher and that the vehicle should be equipped with tracking, navigation and communication systems and be no older than seven years.
The regulations include a fine of OMR50 for failure to run the meter and OMR200 for removing the meter altogether and OMR50 for using a vehicle with shabby interior or exterior.
Violations such as the driver failing to hand over belongings forgotten in the vehicle by passengers carry a fine of OMR50. A fine of OMR200 will be levied for installing a meter that doesn’t meet the ministry’s specifications.
As of the moment, two companies have a fleet of taxicabs that are metered, the Mwasalat and Marhaba.
It has been an issue of the public commuters in the Sultanate that the fare on taxi is very high. By this decision of the Ministry of Transport and Communication, we are hoping that the fare will decrease so that anytime and anywhere you can just hail a taxi to go wherever you want.
