§ 1299-B. Liability for surcharge. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any person that dispatches a motor vehicle by any means that provides transportation that is subject to a surcharge imposed by this article, including transportation network companies as defined in article forty-four-B of the vehicle and traffic law, shall be liable for the surcharge imposed by this article, except that in the case of taxicab trips and HAIL vehicle trips that are also subject to tax pursuant to article twenty-nine-A of this chapter: (1) a TSP that collected the trip record and trip fare shall withhold from daily collections the surcharges due on such trips, and shall withhold from such collections the surcharges due on cash trips. If the TSP's daily collections, after retaining any fees to which it is entitled pursuant to a contract with such taxicab owner or HAIL vehicle owner, are insufficient to cover the surcharges due on such cash trips, the TSP shall withhold an amount from subsequent daily collections, to the extent funds are available, until all surcharges due for a monthly period have been withheld. If a TSP is unable to withhold all the surcharges due in a monthly period, it shall withhold such unwithheld surcharges from daily collections in the next monthly period. A TSP shall be jointly liable for the surcharge imposed by this article for all trips for which the TSP collected the trip record, but shall be relieved of liability for any surcharges attributable to cash trips for which it was unable to withhold the surcharges because there were insufficient daily collections during twelve successive monthly periods. (2) The TSP shall be responsible for filing monthly returns reporting the surcharges due on all trips for which it collected trip records, shall remit the surcharges withheld on all such trips and shall report any unwithheld surcharges due because of insufficient daily collections to cover the tax due on cash trips. For purposes of this section, the terms "taxicab trips," "HAIL vehicle trips," "taxicab owner," "HAIL base," "TSP" and "cash trip" shall have the same meaning as they do in section twelve hundred eighty of this chapter.

(b) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary: (1) The surcharge imposed by this article must be passed along to passengers and separately stated on any receipt that is provided to such passengers. The passing along of such surcharge shall not be construed by any court or administrative body as the imposition of the surcharge on the person or entity that pays for the for-hire transportation trip. All regulatory agencies must adjust any fares that are authorized by them to include the surcharge imposed by this article, and must require that any meter or other instrument used in any for-hire vehicle regulated by it to calculate fares be adjusted to include the surcharge.

(2) Neither the failure of a regulatory agency to adjust fares nor the failure to adjust a meter or other instrument used in a for-hire vehicle to calculate fares shall relieve any person liable for the surcharge imposed by this article from the obligation to pay such surcharge.