By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Dec. 3: With the increasing popularity of ride sharing of private vehicles under the companies like Tootle and Pathao, regulating the ride sharing by private vehicle operators has now become a hot issue.
As there is no provision in existing laws for commercial ride sharing on private vehicles, the concerned government authority has termed it illegal, but no initiative has been started to control or legalise it.
The taxi drivers, who have been facing a considerable decline in their business due to the increasing use of ride sharing in the Kathmandu Valley, have raised the legal aspect of such activity.
Using private vehicles like a public vehicles for commercial ride sharing purpose is illegal as per the existing laws, said Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general at the Department of Transport Management (DoTM).
Hamal said that the government should collect taxes from the business, but there is no provision of collecting tax from such business and regulating it, he said.
He said that the control of the ride sharing business had been difficult due to its popularity among the people, although the government was clear that it was illegal business.
Due to the negative public response to the action taken by traffic police to a rider sharing his bike for commercial purpose, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport had asked the authority not to take any action against such riders.
“We have started discussion regarding the ways to legalise the business. We are in the process of formulating urban transport management act, which will legalise such vehicles,” Hamal said.
A rider providing service to passengers said that he had been able to earn good income by engaging in it as his profession. He, however, said that lack of insurance and depreciation of his vehicle were a matter of worry for him.
Superintendent of Police and spokesperson at Metropolitan Traffic Police Division Binod Kumar Poudel said that traffic police could not control the business as it was impossible to identify who were sharing their motorcycles and four wheelers commercially.
“Though the private vehicle sharing for commercial purposes is illegal, we cannot take action to any rider sharing their vehicles for commercial purpose unless and until the customers lodge complaint against it,” Poudel said.
“We have not received any complaint regarding the business of ride sharing so far,” he said.
He said that the traffic police was not taking action to any such rider. The incidence reported in the media was due to the initiation of the taxi drivers for their vested interests, he added.
Shikshit Bhatta, chief executive officer of Tootle Today, said that they were only a technology provider and

individual riders are the ones who provide services by using our technology.
He said that the current problem was due to the lack of government policy to regulate the business. “We are ready to come under the legal net of the government if the government makes legal provisions,” he said.
He said that insurance companies currently do not have any products to insure in case of this type of business.
Purna Tamang, a taxi driver and general secretary of Valley Taxi Entrepreneurs and Drivers Welfare Society, said there should be a fair competition among any business which should be run legally.
He said that the government should bring the ride sharing business under its tax net as the taxi operators were paying various types of taxes to the government.