Taxi prices will go up by 20 per cent before the end of the month, Sofia's taxi companies OK Supertrans and Za Edno Evro announced.

The third of the three largest taxi companies in Sofia, Taxi S Express, was preparing their new prices, Dnevnik daily said.

The new daytime price would be 0.59 leva per km, while the night price would go up to 0.7 leva. Current prices were 0.49 and 0.59 leva respectively.

The fee for waiting time would probably go up by 0.04 leva to 0.19 or 0.2. The start fee would remain around 0.6 leva, Dnevnik said.

The three companies have the largest market share in Sofia. OK Supertrans and Taxi S Express also service the new airport terminal.

Supertrans representative Lyudmil Lazarov of OK said that over the past three years, the maintenance costs and prices for fuel have gone up by 30%, while the taxi prices have remained unchanged. The price raise was inevitably against the background of the development of prices of fuel and food, and the inflation, he said.

Drivers have invested in the use of cheaper LPG, but the return on that investment comes only after two years, Lazarov said.

Emil Ignatov, manager of Sibi Taxi, said that smaller companies are waiting for price changes from the bigger companies before they decide how to react. The discussion about higher prices started in 2006, motivated by different reasons, but was postponed because of reactions from customers.

The last, smaller price raise was postponed in 2005 ago when the number of customers decreased.

OK Supertrans was said it expects a decrease in customers this time as well. The price raise would coincide with the winter period in which taxis are often the preferred method of transport. The company expected to make up for a loss in customers by attracting more corporate clients and from regular customers.

If the three companies would raise prices simultaneously, that might be a reason for the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) to investigate whether this is a case of co-ordinated pricing. Three years ago the anti-monopolist regulator fined transport companies for simultaneously raising prices.

Representatives of the three companies said there was no market crisis and there would be no reason for interference from the Transport Minstry.