Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Pljevlja Municipality, and New Serbian Democracy councilor in the local parliament Vujo Grbovic, announced that he would propose that all registered taxi drivers in the municipality of Pljevlja be exempted from paying an annual fee of 150 euros.
As he stated, this proposal represents a response to the difficult situation in which independent taxi drivers found themselves after the introduction of public transport.
As a councilor in the Pljevlja Municipal Assembly, he stated that he supported this decision, emphasizing that public transportation brings significant benefits to citizens, especially workers and students who travel daily.
However, Grbović pointed out that when making this decision, insufficient attention was paid to the impact on independent taxi drivers, of whom there are about 30 in Pljevlja. According to him, these are mostly people who have spent their entire working lives in the private sector and who support their families from that job.
"After talking to several taxi drivers, I learned that their workload, after the introduction of public transportation, decreased by about 50 percent," said Grbović.
He believes that it is the local government's obligation to urgently find a way to protect this category of citizens, because, as he said, their families have been brought to the brink of existence. He reminded that taxi drivers regularly pay an annual fee to the municipality for using taxi stands, which amounts to around 150 euros.
"As a first step, I will propose that all registered taxi drivers in the territory of the municipality of Pljevlja be exempted from paying this tax. Therefore, in the future, when making decisions, we must take care that everyone benefits from it without endangering anyone," said Grbović.
Public transport in Pljevlja began operating on Monday, and is currently free for all citizens.
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