The final report of the Victorian Taxi Inquiry has repeated a recommendation to halve the surcharge on electronic payments to five per cent, a step that would cost payment providers such as Cabcharge A$15 million a year.The Inquiry argued that the long-standing surcharge was "well in excess of the resource costs incurred in processing such payments."The report noted that alternative payment providers, such as CabFare, were using rebates on the surcharge to attract taxi owners to their system, with those rebates often accounting for around half of the surcharge.Even with the carrot of rebates, and with four payments processors operating in Victoria, the Inquiry found that "consumers are not benefiting from competition between these service providers."On the other hand, the report said that Cabcharge had responded to the competition in the Sydney market, where it now shared some of the rebate with drivers.The Inquiry called for "more effective competition between taxi operators and networks [as] one of the few ways to increase market pressure for a reduction in the surcharge."The Inquiry proposed "regulation of the service fee."Reg Kermode, the chair and CEO of Cabcharge, told the company's annual meeting in Sydney last month that "suggestions our industry could survive on five per cent... are not realistic and are likely to be met with significant resistance."