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Journalism of Courage
The All India Motor Transport Congress has claimed its members are incurring a daily loss of Rs 1,000 crore,while it is taking a toll of Rs 10,000 crore per day on the country’s overall business due to the strike,which continued for the second day on Tuesday.
“The transporters in the country are facing a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore every day due to stopping of business,” AIMTC President Charan Singh Lohara told reporters in New Delhi.
He claimed that due to the ongoing strike,”the country is incurring huge business losses to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore per day”.
AIMTC,the umbrella body with over 4,000 affiliated unions,claimed that about 60 lakh trucks have been taking part in the strike demanding lower diesel prices,single national permit fee and exemption from service tax among other things.
“Different finance companies have taken back about 40,000 trucks across the country due to loan default,” Lohara said,adding the government should support the truckers’ community like it did for other sectors like real estate and aviation.
“ATF prices have been cut eight times since global crude prices started to fall,but the same has not been done with diesel,” he added.
As the government is currently mulling to bring ATF under declared goods category,diesel should also be brought under the same,with four per cent uniform VAT across the country,Lohara added.
He also asked the government to allow duty-free import of tyres,mainly radial tyres,to break the cartel of domestic manufacturers.
