A nationwide Bharat Bandh was called by Transporters across the country to protest against the heavy taxation and the toll gate system which leads to harassment of the transporters by various departments officials. Transporters say that the present toll system is “corrupt and costly”.
School bus operators have also joined the strike which will affect school children the most. The strike was called by All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) after talks between its delegation and the government failed on Wednesday (September 30).
The government had offered installation of electronic toll tax system across the country by December but doesn’t agree with AIMTC’s demand of scrapping the toll system. The truck associations of many states extended their support to the strike.
“Fuel worth crores is being wasted at the toll gates with inordinate delay. Time can also be saved if toll gate system is removed. The government can collect the taxes in other way,” transporters say.
However, essential commodities like milk, vegetables and medicine were kept off the purview of the strike. On the other side, many truck drivers faced problems as most of them were stuck at one place.
Among AIMTC’s demands are barrier-free movement of vehicles, one-time collection of fixed annual tax and different rates for trucks on national and state permits. The government has called their demands “irrational”.
The All India Motor Transport Congress, which says it represents 93 lakh truckers and 50 lakh bus operators, has said that the toll collection system has become a tool for illegal collection and harassment.
AIMTC said that frequent stoppages of transport vehicles at toll barriers results in loss of man hours worth Rs 27,000 crore and fuel loss worth Rs 60,000 crore every year.
Movement of trucks was stopped completely in various parts of the country due to overwhelming response from all the truck owners.