Our useless gover-min which believes that everything can be solved by raising the costs and passing it to the people who use the service is at it again. This time round, it is raising taxi fares. (Read about it here.)

There will be an adjustment of the flag down rate by 30cts – i.e. normal cabs will now start at $2.70 and the so-called green cabs will start at $3.00. It is said that the distance and time-based charges will be adjusted too and the surcharges will be streamlined as well.

Will that be any good to us commuters when the only real change is that people are going to hurt more in their pockets? And whether they continue to use if they think they can still afford it, or take the MRT, it probably will have no effect on the transport companies’ bottom line. And that maybe the real reason for the hike and what this money faced gover-min cared about, isn’t it?

It is said this is done to help cabbies. But will the lot of our cabbies improve or get worse? We can only tell when cabbies start fighting over a passenger flagging on the road side that life has become really tough for them. Other wise, I am really not surprised if it more stories start flooding this site. The problem with disappearing or loitering cabs, or bad attitude cabbies is unlikely to go away any time soon, and meantime we will be forced to continue to award some of the bastards as if our money comes any easier.