The government’s diesel taxi project will be promoted without Seoul Metropolitan City. As Seoul, which has the largest number of registered taxis in the country, decided not to take part, the taxi project fell into low spirits from the beginning.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MoLIT) recently revised the ‘Guidelines for Fuel Subsidies to Passenger Vehicles’ and finalized the number of cars to receive diesel taxi fuel subsidies by each city and province nationwide.
According to the revised guidelines, when a taxi using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a fuel is changed to a EURO-6 diesel taxi, a fuel subsidy of KRW 345 will be paid per liter of fuel from September 1 next year. 16 cities and provinces nationwide with an exception of Seoul Metropolitan City will pay out subsidies up to 10,000 cars a year. Seoul Metropolitan City decided not to participate in this project by reason that the environmental assessment of the diesel taxi introduction had not been completed. Once the Ministry of Environment (ME) sets out the guidelines for diesel taxi management, Seoul Metropolitan City will decide the system introduction following a verification process based on the ME guidelines. Considering that ME will complete the project on environmental management criteria for diesel taxis within this month and commence the environmental verification for diesel taxis through regulatory improvement early next year, it will be difficult for Seoul Metropolitan City to participate in the project next year.
Accordingly, MoLIT additionally distributed around 2,000 taxies, which it had planned to allocate to Seoul, to local governments other than Gyeonggi Province and Incheon City, which decided not to increase the number of taxies for the project by reason of environmental verification.
With Seoul Metropolitan City’s decision not to participate in the project, the diesel taxi project will have to be kicked off dispirited in the New Year. In Seoul Metropolitan City, approximately 72,000 taxies, the largest number in the country, are registered as of September. This represents around 28% of taxis registered across the country. Although the number of cars subject to the subsidy payment will be kept as 10,000 as of the plan, diesel taxi distribution is forecast to slow down as a result of Seoul Metropolitan’s absence.
“Diesel taxis are introduced for the first time and their service distance is long. So, we need to examine the environmental impact closely,” said a Seoul Metropolitan City insider. “We will examine environmental impact according to the Ministry of Environment’s guidelines and decide whether or not to introduce diesel taxis.”
Choi Ho | snoop@etnews.com