In what can be a major damage to the commodity market as well the country’s supply chain, the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has threatened to go on a nation wide road transport strike from January 5, if the government does not take any step to bail out the road transport sector, which is facing a crisis owing to slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
Raja Roy, general secretary of the Calcutta Goods Transport Association, a wing of AIMTC, said that the Indian road transport sector, providing livelihood to maximum number of people after agriculture with more than 4.3 million trucks and trailers plying across the country, has been severely hit by the slow down of the manufacturing sector in India, a fall out of the global recession.
While the government has given preferential treatment to the aviation sector, it has been least bothered about the road transport sector. Roy said that prices of aviation fuel has been reduced by 50% after international crude oil prices fell from $147 per barrel to $ 67 per barrel but the government for that reason could reduce diesel prices by only Rs 3 per litre at Rs 33, which is extremely discriminatory. While in the aviation sector, fuel accounts for 55% of the total operational cost, in the road transport sector, fuel accounts for 70% of the total operational cost.
AIMTC has demanded to reduce the prices of diesel by Rs 10 at least and prices of tyre by 36% while it has asked the government to initiate measures for breaking cartel of tyre manufacturers. AIMTC has also asked the Centre to allow duty free import of tyre and stall toll tax collection for six months.
The transporters? body has also demanded moratorium on all installments and waiver of interest on truck finance for at least six months and abolition of service tax on any services provided by the goods transport agencies.