Big Blue Taxi Services founder Shamsubahrin Ismail said it was Putrajaya’s responsibility to fix the glaring mismatch between taxi and e-hailing ride fares which has now led to a spike in fares for the latter.

“We want the government to standardise the (e-hailing) fares to that of taxis. There must be some control. Without it, fares will continue to go up,” he said in a press conference.

Recently, following complaints of high prices for e-hailing rides, the government said it would suspend or revoke licenses of e-hailing companies that went beyond the 200% surcharge limit for any given ride.

While Putrajaya has not regulated the base fee for e-hailing fares, it said the surcharge cannot exceed the base fee amount.

Transport minister Wee Ka Siong was also reported to have said that the price increases on e-hailing rides were caused by a mismatch in supply and demand as well as due to heavy traffic during peak hours.