Truckers’ strike badly hits functioning of industry

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 20

With various transport unions halting transportation work on Friday on a call given by the All-India Motor Transport Congress, loss worth crores was suffered by the industries in various industrial clusters like Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), Kala Amb, Paonta Sahib and Parwanoo where the trucks did not ply.

The worst affected was the BBN area which houses the Asia’s biggest truck union comprising about 10,000 trucks. The unions, however, did not stop transportation of fruits and vegetables.

Terming it as an extreme step badly hitting the industrial sector, Sailesh Aggarwal, president, BBN Industries Association, said problem would be aggravated if the strike continued for more days. He said the export-oriented units, which have to transport their goods to the ports within a specific period, were hit the hardest.

Even the units who have to transport finished goods and raw materials on a daily basis were facing problems due to this strike. He added that at a time when the banks were strictly monitoring the credit score of industries, disruption of transportation work was a severe blow to the economy.

He said the state government should boost rail connectivity to the BBN area as the sole dependence on trucks proved dear during such eventualities.

Naresh Gupta, president, Himachal Truck Operators Federation, said they were compelled to go for the indefinite strike as the union government had adopted an indifferent attitude towards their long-pending demands. These include third party insurance premium, amendment in Income Tax Act 44AE and removal of toll barriers.

They demanded quarterly revision of diesel prices and urged the government to make fuel prices uniform throughout the country.

They have also demanded rollback of the third party insurance system which has been increased from the current year.

Further, it was demanded that the GST and agent commission on third party premium should be abolished as such funds are used for social causes like accident victims assistance.

The issue of Income Tax Act 44AE has also come in for stiff opposition as the said facility of no account assessment was only for small truck operators as they can’t maintain proper accounts. Earlier, they were assessed for Nett Income of Rs 90,000 per annum but this has been revised to Rs 1000 per ton per month on gross vehicle weight which had led to manifold increase.