Karnataka for policy changes in tune with emerging biz

The Dollar Business Bureau

Amid a legal fight against the latest norms by the state for app-based taxi-aggregators, Priyank Kharge, IT Minister of Karnataka said on Sunday that these firms should follow the norms but also pitched for policy changes in line with emerging businesses such as e-commerce.

“There are certain laws that need to be followed. If you are a facilitator or an aggregator, and if you are making money from that platform, you are responsible for safeguarding passengers or customers,” Kharge told PTI in Bengaluru while responding to a query on how state government would address the concerns raised by the companies.

The Minister, however, said that the central as well as state governments should change their present policies and sync them to the requirements of the evolving new businesses and industries, which will let them function freely.

“I am in a complicated situation as the IT minister of the state because I have to make sure that there is no loss in revenue for the government as well as facilitate ease of doing business,” he said.

Uber, the app-based taxi-aggregator, has challenged the On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016 of Karnataka, in the high court when the transport department seized vehicles for not getting the licences under the new rules.

The company had opposed that as Uber is a technology platform which only connects drivers with the passengers, it cannot come under Motor Vehicles Act, which regulates taxis and aggregators in India.

Last month, during the hearing of the case, the high court had questioned the state government on 'stifling' the startup businesses through regulatory norms that can create an ‘unviable’ atmosphere and wanted the Govt. to modify  or amend the norms in order to encourage them.