K-P mulls legal framework for ride-hailing companies

All ride-hailing services provide jobs to thousands of Pakistani drivers: Devlin

PESHAWAR: With ride-hailing apps embroiled in litigation, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is mulling a move to become one of the first provinces in the country to provide a legal framework for urban mobility companies.

This was suggested in a meeting between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra and ride-sharing application Uber’s Head of International Strategy and Policy Matthew Devlin and Head of Policy for Pakistan Hassan Arshad in Islamabad.

Jhagra said that in K-P the tax rate on ride-hailing services is two per cent and five per cent on online marketplace services because the government believes that these will go a long way towards job creation for the youth.

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“This will encourage entrepreneurship and protect the incomes of drivers already using the ride hailing-platform,” he said, adding that in turn it will have a positive impact on job creation, attract investment and prove to be a sustainable revenue source for the government in the years to come.

During the meeting, regulatory policy framework for ride-hailing application growth and potential partnerships between the K-P government and Uber were discussed in detail.

Devlin said all ride-hailing services provided jobs to thousands of Pakistani drivers.

Even the jobless people with higher education joined these services to earn a livelihood.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2019.