Drivers of fixed-route taxis still on strike in Dagestan

Today in Makhachkala, drivers of fixed-route taxis have not come to work. Meanwhile, Ferzullah Kakhrimanov, deputy head pf the administration of the capital of Dagestan, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the negotiations held yesterday in the afternoon resulted in an agreement to stop the strike.

Let us remind you that today in the morning in Makhachkala fixed-route taxis failed to appear in their routes. The reason of the continued strike was in increase of the imputed income tax on drivers by 500 roubles.

According to Mr Kakhrimanov, in Dagestan this tax was 725 roubles - one of the lowest in Russia. It was decided to add 500 roubles without any increase of the travel fare for passengers.

"However, part of the drivers found the increase unacceptable and went on strike," he explained. "We sat down to table, discussed all the problems and decided to drop the tax by 200 roubles; the drivers promised to return to work."

Should the protest action continue, the official said, other measures can be taken. "The federal legislation forbids drivers to strike. If the action continues, we'll recruit new drivers and purchase shuttle buses," said Kakhrimanov.

A bit different version was narrated by Isalmagomed Nabiev, chairman of the independent trade union of entrepreneurs of Dagestan. According to his story, it all began in 1998, when under the order of Said Amirov, head of Makhachkala, two Municipal Unitary Enterprises (MUE) were formed: "Makhachkalatrans" and "Makhachkalatrans-1".

"Everyone in Dagestan knows that the MUEs belong to Amirov. The only business of the bosses and members of these enterprises was selling the so-called 'trip tickets' made on a usual printer for 2800-3000 roubles. Every year these people gathered 150 million roubles cash from 1448 drivers of fixed-route taxis. It's unprecedented in the world practice. My calculations show their profit as 1500 percent, while 15-20 percent in our business is considered almost the highest," Mr Nabiev said.

He has added that he had repeatedly filed applications to various instances, but with no reaction: "In 2008, President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev ordered to check up the operation of these MUEs, but the process was never finished. We managed to find out that the structures, which had to pay 100 million roubles into the republic's budget, but paid only 9 million."

Mr Nabiev believes that the tax of 250-300 roubles per driver in quite enough. "This sum, by my calculations, is enough for everything. Today, they 'slice' 3000 roubles from a driver; now they want 500 roubles more, and nobody knows where this huge money goes," he said with indignation.