It is of urgent concern that higher taxi fares may push those who do not want to pay extra money to take unlicensed taxis.

If that becomes a reality, efforts by the Beijing municipal government to raise taxi fares to offset the losses inflicted on taxi drivers by oil price hikes will be in vain.

The issue of raising taxi fares from the current 1.6 yuan (20 US cents) to 2 yuan (24 US cents) a kilometre will be discussed at a hearing on Wednesday.

Hearing representatives have raised the question of whether licensed taxis will lose the bulk of their business to unlicensed taxis after the fare increase.

Unlicensed taxis  known as heiche, meaning "black taxi"  have been active for many years in those urban areas where public transport is inconvenient. There are estimated to be more than 70,000 unlicensed taxis operating in Beijing, as opposed to some 60,000 licensed taxis.

Unlicensed taxis do not pay taxes and management fees and do not have any government departments regulating their performance. As a result they make high profits, but the interests and rights of their customers cannot be duly guaranteed if disputes arise or if there is a traffic accident.

Therefore, the operation of unlicensed taxis should have been stopped; their expansion reflects inefficient management by the relevant government departments.

It also seems to indicate that there are not enough licensed taxis to meet demand, but the fact is that many often go for hours a day without picking up any customers. The only explanation could be that unlicensed taxis have the advantage in terms of offering lower prices and being able to run in places where licensed ones seldom appear.

Authorities from the law enforcement department of the traffic police have promised that they will make more effort, and even employ high-tech equipment, to spot the operation of unlicensed taxis and rid the city of them.

We cannot help but ask why, if it is possible, they did not do this much earlier when the number of unlicensed taxis was little more than 10,000 three years ago. We also wonder whether the new campaign to crack down on unlicensed taxis will be another game of cat and mouse since the traffic police and other relevant departments do not have enough resources to deal with so many unlicensed taxis.

If the crackdown does not work, it is possible that unlicensed taxis may get the lion's share of market profits, leaving their licensed counterparts stranded in desperate financial straits.