Goa’s ‘taxi mafia’: What tourists need to know

On Friday, after a fortnight of intense debate about draft guidelines on app-based taxis notified by Goa’s transport department, Chief Minister Pramod Samant said that external cab giants such as Uber and Ola would not be allowed to operate in the state.

Though the Goa Transport Aggregator Guidelines, 2025, offers a regulatory framework for app-based taxi and bike taxi operators, Samant said that it is “meant to regulate the existing taxi system, not to permit new companies”.

The controversy about the guidelines brings into focus the polarised opinions about the taxi system in a state that earns just over 16% of its revenues from tourism.

The guidelines have been welcomed both by residents and tourists. They cite a variety of reasons for supporting app-based taxis: unregulated, inflated fares by Goan taxi operators, a shortage of vehicles when they are needed, the seemingly whimsical behaviour of taxi operators, among them.

In fact, some have fixed the blame for what they believe is the decline of Goan tourism on the so-called taxi mafia.

But the state’s taxi drivers are up in arms. They oppose the idea of a business that they have built and sustained over years being handed over to large corporations.

The Goa taxi mafia is behind this.
They are just looting tourists.
I was staying at a hotel in Varca,...

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