Uber suspends surge pricing in Delhi

Under fire for the high surge in the wake of Odd-Even plan in Delhi, Uber has said that it is suspending surge with immediate effect.

"Given the threat to the livelihood of our partners, at the expense of reliability, we are temporarily suspending surge with immediate effect," the company tweeted.

Earlier, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had warned that the government would be looking into the surge pricing of cab aggregators like Ola and Uber after people complained of high surge prices. The demand for cabs in Delhi shot up on Monday as the government Odd-Even rule, theoretically banning almost 50 per cent cars.

People complained of surge pricing as high as 5X. While both Uber and Ola defend surge pricing by saying that it is automated process and depends on demand and supply, the practice has been controversial. Recently, authorities in Bangalore banned surge pricing and asked Ola and Uber to ply by the regular fares.

On its part, the cab aggregators say that they can't really do anything about the surge pricing because do not manually control it. They say that it also helps retain a balance between supply and demand. "Uber rates increase to ensure reliability when demand cannot be met by the number of drivers on the road," the company explains on its website.