"It's going to be 1.6 starting on Thursday," the company's head Gediminas Kukalis confirmed to 15min.lt. He refused, however, to comment on what was making the prices go up. The question angered the director of "Filex auto," who threatened to sue, should the information on the increase in prices go public.
Vilnius city authorities confirmed that they received notice from "Filex auto" - as well as from several other Vilnius taxi companies - on the increase in taxi service rates.
By the end of February, two more companies are making their services more expensive by 15 to 30 cents per kilometer, city authorities confirm.
Before 6 February, 24 taxi service providers in Vilnius raised their rates by approximately 30 cents per kilometer. Most of them currently charge 1.8 litas (EUR 0.52). The seemingly coordinated increase in prices raised suspicions of a cartel agreement, making Vilnius Municipality refer the case to the Competition Council.
However, Romualdas Bieliauskas, head of Vilnius Taxi Association, sais that the rates may go up once more quite soon.
According to him, the prices should reach 2 to 2.2 litas (EUR 0.64) in order to cover the cost of providing taxi services.
Further increases might take place once a new municipal taxi company, run by Vilnius city authorities, begin operation, Mr Bieliauskas predicts.
