Mai Linh Taxi Company has asked for the government's help to pay insurance for employees as they have incurred more than VND180bn (USD7.9m) in losses by the end of October last year.

Mai Linh Taxi is incurring huge debt

Mai Linh sent documents to the NA Committee for Social Affairs, Ministry of Finance and the Vietnam Social Security to seek for financial support.

Representatives of Mai Linh Taxi said because of the financial downturn in 2008 and high interest rates, they struggled to pay taxes, and social, health, and unemployment insurance for their employees. They cannot afford to pay VND150bn (USD6.6m) of the original debt and VND77bn (USD3.4m) in interest.

"We are also facing fierce and unfair competition with Uber and Grab Taxi," he said. "Our revenue has dropped by 30% compared to previous years."

Mai Linh Taxi hopes to get help from the government in order to prevent thousands of employees from being made unemployed. They asked to be exempted from paying interest. Mai Linh have asked for the terms of its debt of VND150bn to be renegotiated to extend to 2038, and are seeking to have any late payment fines wavered.

"We want the Vietnam Social Security to reduce our debts to help us overcome this hard time and continue to provide jobs to 24,000 people," Mai Linh Taxi stated in their official documents.

Vietnamnet/Dtinews