Moscow taxi drivers will mount public actions in early August in protest against an "ill thought out" new law regulating their business, a union leader said Monday.
A federal law that comes into force Sept. 1 requires taxi drivers to display a standardized pattern to indicate their services and invest in new equipment.
Andrei Popkov, co-chairman of the Taxist Union, told Interfax that the law could cause taxi fares to leap 25 percent as drivers pass on the cost of new paint jobs and equipment to passengers. He said his union has received no reply to an open letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin requesting amendments to the law.
(MT)
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