Transporters' strike to cause loss of Rs 2000 crore daily

Truckers are scheduled to go off the roads indefinitely starting October 1 to protest corruption and delays at toll booths and checkposts

The Indian exchequer is estimated to lose Rs 2,000 crore daily on account of an indefinite nationwide truckers' strike scheduled to start October 1. The strike has been called by the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) in support of truckers’ demands that include revoking Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and toll charges.
 
The industry body claimed that over 8.6 million trucks across the country would go off the road as talks with the union government had failed.
 
“The government would lose over Rs 2000 crore daily on account of truckers’ country-wide strike,” said AIMTC President Bhim Wadhwa, who is touring different states with his colleagues to ensure the strike is a success.

 

Wadhwa clarified that the transporters’ body was not against the government revenues raised through toll and wanted the government to work out alternate toll collection methods that would not only contain “illegal collection” but also save fuel worth crores of rupees.
 
The transport fraternity cannot sustain operations in light of burgeoning corruption, harassment and time delays at toll booths and checkpost barriers, he said, adding that truckers wanted that the revenue may be collected as indirect tax. Wadhwa said transporters were ready to deposit the amount that toll plazas across the country were giving to the government.
 

Toll plazas across the country have been generating revenue of Rs 15,000 crore annually for the government though the toll firms had been collecting many times that amount, Wadhwa claimed as having been told.
 
“The AIMTC was ready to deposit equal amount (Rs 15,000 crore) in one instalment to the government in advance,” he said.