Truckers go off roads to protest GST, daily diesel price revision (Roundup)
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NEWS :Hundreds
and thousands of trucks kept off the roads across the country on Monday
beginning a two-day strike to protest against the GST
and calling for an end to daily revision of fuel prices. The strike sparked
price rise due to an imminent disruption in supplies of essential commodities
ahead of Diwali.
The decision to strike, which began at 8 a.m., came after
last minute negotiations between the government and the transporters failed to
resolve the logjam over their demands, Harish Sabharwal, Additional Vice
President (North) of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), said.
"We are going on a nationwide chakka jam today (Monday)
and tomorrow (Tuesday). Negotiations with the government did not yield any
results as they did not agree to our demands. The truckers will suffer a loss
of Rs 2,000 crore. We are compelled to suffer this loss," said Sabharwal,
also a member in the Road Safety Council of the Ministry of Shipping, Road
Transport and Highways.
AIMTC is the top body of transporters in India and represents
around 93 lakh truckers and around 50 lakhs bus and tourist operators across
India.
Truck operators claim they were suffering because GST-related
rules had created confusion because of the existence of Reverse Charge
Mechanism (RCM) and Forward Charge Mechanism (FCM) in the new tax system.
The AIMTC said in a statement that the indirect tax regime
had led to forced registration and unnecessary compliance by transporters and
this needed to be done away with. Transporters are also miffed that sale of
used assets attract double taxation under the GST and want this provision
scrapped.
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