The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said they will also need more time to ready taxi metres for the new flagfall rate.

Chief Executive Etuate Koroi said aside from the taxi operators, the Authority will need a week more to process all taxis with newly adjusted metres.

Koroi said he understands that the deadline on Thursday is too short for both the taxi operators and the Authority however this is all subject to the Transport Ministry's approval.

He said he understands that there are around 5,000 taxis and it would take at least 20 minutes to seal and process just one, so he will make a request to the Interim Transport Minister Timoci Natuva to defer the deadline.

Natuva added the advertisement in today's dailies is just a reminder for taxi operators to get their taxi metres adjusted now and then taken to the Authority for final processing and sealing for public use.

The Fiji Taxi Union has confirmed they have asked the Interim Transport Minister for a deferment of the deadline date.

A directive had been issued by the Interim Government and LTA to reduce the flag fall rate of taxi fares from $1.50 to $1 from 6am to 10pm and $2 to $1.50 from 10pm to 6am from this Thursday.