24 October, 2008

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department T. Murugiah will meet taxi touts plying the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang and persuade them not to operate there.

"I have a list of 14 licence plate numbers of private cars, which are often seen around LCCT.

"They were given to me by the taxi drivers at LCCT. But we can't take any action against them because we don't have proof.

"For instance, they can say they are there at the LCCT to pick up their relatives.

"It's hard to catch them in the act. So, we want to meet and talk to them to leave the taxi drivers alone," he told reporters after meeting representatives of taxi drivers association, the Tourism Ministry, the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB), Road Transport Department (JPJ) and the airport authorities, at his office here yesterday.

Murugiah hoped to meet the touts at LCCT on Nov 6, accompanied by JPJ officers and other authorities.

"We promise not to enforce the law against them," he said, adding that many drivers had complained of being threatened by the touts.

On how he hoped to meet them, Murugiah said he would ask the JPJ to trace the owners of the vehicles. Murugiah, who is tasked with the Public Complaints Bureau, said the CVLB had also frozen the permits of taxis plying the LCCT as there was not enough passengers.

Asked if freezing of the permits would not inconvenience passsengers, he said passengers could still take buses, which the CVLB had approved 85 permits to ply the route.

Among others, Murugiah said the taxi drivers also complained of the high number of Skybuses and the 9% charge imposed by the coupon operator on each trip.

This article is a verbatim copy of the original article from The Star.