Government lawyer justifies cancellation of yellow plate numbers for taxis

YEREVAN, March 14. /ARKA/. A senior legal advisor with the government said a Cabinet decision that all taxis must have yellow number plates did not justify the expectations as they were supposed originally to indicate high quality services.

Speaking at a news conference, Gevork Gevorkyan, chief lawyer at the National Center for Coordination  of Laws, an affiliation of the government, said the people came to believe that yellow number plates indicate that the cars belong to a taxi company, not to private entrepreneurs and if they are cancelled it will cause confusion. The yellow number plates were introduced in 2007.

“I can tell you that there is nothing like that,” he said. “Any individual entrepreneur, not necessarily an owner of a passenger transportation business, can have yellow number plates, but they not necessarily show high quality of services, presence of a meter or skilled driver.”

He said that yellow number plates were designed for registration of taxis, and this objective is already fulfilled.  

Gevorkyan said there are some 9,000 taxis in Armenia now. Of them, 7,000 belong to 500 taxi services. 

“Now, legality of taxis will be confirmed by certificates to be fixed on the back window of the car,” he said. “The design of the certificate is to be worked out by the ministry of transport and communications.” 

Besides, he said, under the proposed changes, the cost of a license will slash from the present AMD 120,000 to AMD 103,000.

Gevorkyan said that besides from canceling yellow number plates, the bill calls for elimination of a formal medical check that drivers have to undergo. It also tightens the size of penalty for unlicensed passenger transportation from AMD 20,000 to AMD 50,000. 

The bill will be considered by the government within the next few weeks and if approved, it will be sent to the National Assembly.  The changes will come into effect six months after they are passed in the parliament. ($1 – AMD 414.28).  -0-