If you’re in Mumbai and are worried about the taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers fleecing you by charging you based on wrong/fictional tariff cards, then you can carry the official/authorized tariff cards for taxis and auto-rickshaws. Of course, that doesn’t stop you from being fleeced due to tampered meters and/or round-about routes. ;-)

Adarsh A / Money Photos / CC BY-NC-SA

Update: [Jan 2013] Mumbai’s non-A/C taxis and autorickshaws come in three meter variants, i) Mechanical, ii) Uncaliberated electronic, iii) Caliberated electronic. Obviously, the caliberated electronic meters do not need a separate tariff card as the meter shows the exact fare to be paid by you. So, it is the old mechanical and uncaliberated electronic meters that require a paper tariff card to convert the meter reading into the correct fare. So the question is, how does one recognize a caliberated electronic meter? The answer is simple – if the base or minimum fare displayed by the electronic meter is Rs. 19 for taxis and Rs. 15 for autorickshaws, the meter has been caliberated and you should pay the fare displayed by the meter without referring to a paper tariff card. For all other meters, refer to the tariff cards from the links, above. Happy commuting! :-)