At a public hearing in Beijing yesterday, 56 percent of attendees agreed to a pricing plan, which aims to offset the impact of up-to-50 percent rises in fuel prices since 2000.

This means Beijing may raise taxi fares from 1.6 yuan (US$20 cents) to 2 yuan (US$25?cents) per kilometer.

The plan was submitted by the Beijing Municipal Transportation Bureau to the city's pricing regulator earlier this month.

Chai Xiaozhong, deputy director of Beijing Development and Reform Commission who organized the hearing, said they had solicited opinions from 25 people representing taxi companies, schools, research institutions, consumer associations and factories. Fourteen of them had approved the fare rises, two gave qualified approval and the others opposed the increases.

The price hike was proposed to offset rising fuel costs and to pay for drivers' social insurance and third-party liability, said Yao Kuo, deputy director of Beijing Transportation Bureau.

Chen Jianmin, a law professor of the prestigious Tsinghua University, said most of the 100 residents and over 40 cab drivers she surveyed were against the fare increase.

The majority of the people surveyed by Chen believed fare increases would very likely lead people in Beijing to take black market or unlicensed cabs thereby depriving legitimate tax drivers of income.

Chai said the commission would fully consider the opinions it had heard before making a final decision.

The government and taxi companies started to give drivers a monthly petrol subsidy of 300 yuan last year to help cover increased fuel costs. After oil prices jumped at the end of last month taxi drivers started to receive an additional monthly subsidy of 150 yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily April 27, 2006)