The NSW taxi industry has rejected the state government's "final offer" of a $150,000 payout per car, to compensate for the impact of ride-sharing services.
The government is proposing to charge all rideshare and taxi passengers an extra 20 cents per trip on top of a $1 levy until 2030, to pay for the $260 million cash injection.
Transport Minister David Elliott yesterday issued an ultimatum, arguing the package was the most generous in Australia and saying the NSW Taxi Council had 24 hours to accept it.
But taxi council chief executive Martin Rogers said the government needed to do more.
"It's not just us, it's other MPs across a number of parties who have said to me, the offer presented last night is still short," Mr Rogers said.
The package would see metro taxi owners get $150,000 per car, for up to six cars.
Regional licence holders would get between $40,000 and $195,000 with no cap on the number of cars, depending on the availability of ride-sharing apps in their area.
Mr Rogers wants taxi drivers to get $350,000 per car, which he said was the value of a taxi licence in 2015, when companies like Uber were permitted to legally operate.
"They got these from the government and they still have significant loans against them," Mr Rogers said.
"Getting $150,000 still leaves them with a debt but no asset or income."
Uber has since been joined in NSW by similar services like Ola and Didi and Shebah.
Mr Elliott said if the council did not accept the offer, he would send it for independent assessment, where it would be compared with other similar packages around the world.
"There is a huge risk that our cabbies will get less compensation than what is on offer right now," Mr Elliott said.
In September, the government announced an additional $500 million on top of an earlier package to compensate taxi licence owners for their losses when the industry was deregulated.
A total of $145 million has already been paid out as part of reforming the taxi industry.
Regional Transport Minister Sam Farraway said the government could pass the legislation in the next two weeks and have money in the bank accounts of licence holders by February.
"You've waited seven years, a fair deal is on the table. Take the package," he said.
The government said the offer would take the value of the industry rescue package to $905 million, more than any other state in the country.
