YANGON, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar official daily Monday called for upgrading the service of private taxis, saying that it is high time to make such change.

"As it is likely to see flocks of tourists when Myanmar hosts Southeast Asian Games-2013 and ASEAN Summit-2014, downtown transport service should be upgraded to enhance the image of the nation, especially taxi service," stressed the New Light of Myanmar.

The paper cited passengers' complaint as saying "although taxi meters, which worth 200,000 Kyats (about 230 U.S. dollars) each, were installed at every cab to help passengers to ensure that they are treated fairly by knowing an accurate fare for their taxi-ride, it is not working up to date and culture of bargaining still prevails."

Passengers are experiencing the selfish behavior of unscrupulous taxi drivers who carry more passengers with different destinations at the same time for earning more money, the complaint said, adding that taxi drivers are taking advantage of Myanmar people's feeling of embarrassment and tolerance, causing feeling of anger or annoyance of passengers.

Blaming taxi drivers for not adhering to the authorities' prescription of taxi fares, the report urged the authorities to take punitive action against profit-seeking taxi drivers at this high time.

According to the road transport administration, the number of motor vehicles of various types operating in Myanmar reached 3.61 million as of December 2012.

Of the total, 3.15 million are motor cycles, while 317,795 are passenger cars, 70,553 trucks and 19,522 buses.

About 30 million passengers are relying on buses for their transport, while 500,000 on taxis annually in Yangon, statistics show.