Taxis must display sign stating card payments accepted, ministry insists
“Nobody is above the law,” Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis has stressed, in the context of the spat between his ministry and taxi unions over the obligation of cabbies to inform passengers that fares can be paid by card.
The Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) has produced signs, free of charge, that must be displayed in the interior of taxis to inform customers that the taxi also accepts payments via a card terminal.
In response to a refusal by the Panhellenic Taxi Federation (POEIATA) to pick up the special signs and to distribute them to drivers, a joint ministerial decision signed by Deputy Economy and Finance Ministers Christos Dimas and Thanos Petralias on Tuesday made the process and the deadlines stricter.
The decision makes POEIATA responsible for distributing the signs and, if it should again refuse, transfers the responsibility to local taxi unions. In the event that they also refuse to distribute the signs to their members, responsibility then passes to the taxi owner, who must then also cover the cost of producing the sign that meets AADE standards.
Drivers who refuse will face a fine of €1,000 per transgression.
The procedure states that taxi drivers and owners are obliged to affix the sign in the taxi they drive within three weeks after they receive it.
