“Considering the need to organize POS devices active inside and outside Iran and create a framework for them to prevent tax evasion and reduce dubious bank transactions, a coalition has been formed with the participation of CBI, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, law enforcement agencies and INTA to establish a clear system and software for banks’ POS devices,” Seyyed Kamel Taqavinejad also told IBENA on Saturday.

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The successful implementation of the plan depends on increasing budget by the banking system and the administration, ISNA quoted Morteza Zameni as saying.

He went on to say that the taxi fleet’s renovation plan started in May 2016 and till the date some 71,000 clunker taxis have been scrapped and some 61,000 new taxis have been delivered to drivers.

Still some 120,000 clunker taxis ply in Iran’s cities and their replacement needs allocating increased loans by banks, he highlighted.

The budget dedicated to the renovation plan doesn’t fit the great volume of requests and this has led to impeding the renovation process, Zameni added.

He also touched on plans for using hybrid and electric cars as taxis in current year. “Although these cars are expensive, if we want to fight air pollution, we have to show our determination.”

Replacing a fuel-powered car with an electric car will save some 940 million rials (nearly $19,000) for the country during 10 years, he concluded.

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As per the plan, taxis aging over 10 years should be scrapped aiming to stimulate the automobile industry and remove inefficient, high emissions vehicles from the road.

Shahriar Afandizadeh head of Tehran’s Taxi Driving Organization affiliated with the municipality has said some 15,000 old taxis are projected to be replaced with new ones by the end of the current [Iranian] year, however, so far only 3,599 taxis have been scrapped.

The budget needed for granting 200-million-rial (nearly $5,000) loans, which must be allocated by the Interior Ministry and the banking system, is yet to be provided, Afandizadeh regretted.

The municipality has seriously considered renovating public transportation for the next year by adding new buses, replacing some 17,000 taxis, pushing for car loans allocation, and fostering the Interior ministry’s cooperation.

Some 6,000 buses will be renovated by the end of the current [Iranian calendar] year, he highlighted.

Air pollution is a challenge metropolitans of Iran, most significantly Tehran, are struggling with. The choking smoke is attributed to cars, outdated buses, taxis, and trucks, plying the city on a daily basis.

While traffic schemes are designed to restrict personal cars from accessing city centers, which are the most congested and polluted areas, clunker taxis and buses are required to be replaced with modern, and low-emission models to save the Tehraners from breathing the suffocating smoke every day.

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The EU’s top court will decide Wednesday if ride-hailing app Uber is an ordinary taxi company and should be regulated as such, in a decision that will be closely watched around the world.

The case is yet another thorn in the side for scandal-rocked Uber, which has drawn the fury of local taxi drivers and officials for flouting local regulations.

It also comes the same week as one of its drivers admitted to the attempted rape and murder of a British embassy worker coming home from a night out in Beirut, Lebanon.

Uber, the biggest name in the exploding gig economy, claims it is a mere service provider, connecting consumers with drivers in more than 600 cities.

But it has run into huge opposition from taxi companies and other competitors who say this allows it to dodge costly regulations such as training and licensing requirements for drivers and vehicles.

The case was brought by a taxi drivers’ association in the Spanish city of Barcelona, where belief runs high that Uber is a taxi company that should be subject to rules governing such vehicles.

The court’s senior advisor, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar agreed in an opinion in May arguing that Uber “whilst innovative, falls within the field of transport”.

“Uber can thus be required to obtain the necessary licences and authorisations under national law,” he said.

– A rough ride –

The company reacted sharply, saying the opinion would change little in practice and only harm innovation.

“To be considered a transport company will not change the regulations we are subject to in most European countries,” a spokesman for Uber said.

“It will however hurt the necessary reform of outdated laws which prevent millions of Europeans being able to find a reliable ride with just one click,” the spokesman said.

The opinions given by the ECJ’s advocate generals — its top lawyers — are often followed by the court’s judges.

Uber has had a rough ride in Spain, where a judge ruled in 2014 that its UberPop service risked breaking the law, leading to the Barcelona submission to the ECJ.

Early last year it decided to only operate a limited a version of its UberX service in Spain which uses licensed, professional drivers instead of the amateurs who had previously worked via the UberPop application.

Uber has already had problems with the law in several European countries, particularly France where the company was forced to overhaul its business model.

In November a labour court in London, where the company is threatened with losing its license, said it had to pay the drivers a minimum wage and give them paid leave.

Uber does not employ drivers or own vehicles, but instead relies on private contractors with their own cars, allowing them to run their own businesses.

Licensed taxi drivers meanwhile often have to undergo hundreds of hours of training, and they accuse Uber of endangering their jobs by using more affordable drivers who need only a GPS to get around.

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