On Tuesday 16 June 2020, The Queensland Government announced an additional $23 million to support the state’s taxi and limousine operators as Queensland continues its COVID-19 recovery.
The $23 million stimulus package includes:
- One-off payments of $3,500 per vehicle to taxi and limousine operators
- One-off payments of $1,000 per licence to taxi and limousine licence holders
- One-off payments of $1,500 to authorised booking entities for each affiliated taxi/limousine, capped at 1,000 vehicles and for entities that provide booking services predominantly for taxis and/or limousines
- One-off incentive payments of an additional $1,000 per vehicle for Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WATs) operators
This builds on a $54.5 million essential transport services package released in April, which included:
- Extending existing booked hire/taxi driver authorisations and taxi/limousine licences for six months
- A further waiver of the annual Taxi Industry Security Levy in 2019/20
- Extending all existing booking entity authorisations for six months
- Temporarily extending the refund policy for holders of booked hire service licences so they can receive a pro-rata refund if they choose to surrender their licence
- Waiving fees for operators to de-register and re-register their vehicles