REFUSAL TO ISSUE OR TRANSFER LICENCES (Yellow Top Taxis)

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam asked the Minister for Communications and Minister for Labour for what reasons the Registry of Vehicles refuses to issue new vocational licences for yellow top taxis or to permit the transfer of existing licences from their present holders to others.

Mr Ong Teng Cheong: Taxi vocational licences are still being issued by the Registry of Vehicles (ROV) to successful applicants to drive any licensed taxi including yellow-top taxis.

A taxi licence is issued to a person to enable him to earn a living by operating a taxi. Taxi licences are made non-transferable to prevent trading in such licences. It would not be proper for holders of these licences to make large windfall gains out of them.

In Hong Kong, where taxi licences are transferable, a taxi licence can fetch a high transfer value of more than HK$250,000 in the market. It is the practice of the Hong Kong Government to issue taxi licences by tender to the highest bidders. The bidding price for a taxi licence is more than HK$200,000 each. Thus taxi licences are owned by the few who can afford to put up large sums of money and who in turn must charge high rental. I do not think our taxi drivers would like to have such a system nor should we allow it.