Truckers go off roads in GST protest

Hundreds of thousands of trucks kept off the roads across the country yesterday beginning a two-day strike to protest against the new Goods and Services Tax and calling for an end to daily revision of fuel prices. The strike sparked a rise in prices due to a sudden disruption in supplies of essential commodities ahead of Diwali.The decision to strike, which began at 8am., came after last-minute negotiations between the government and the transporters failed to resolve the logjam over their demands, Harish Sabharwal of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) said.“We are going on a nationwide strike today and tomorrow. Negotiations with the government did not yield any results as they did not agree to our demands. The truckers will suffer a loss of Rs2,000 crore. We are compelled to suffer this loss,” said Sabharwal, who is also a member of the Road Safety Council of the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways.The AIMTC is the top body of transporters in India and represents around 9.3mn truckers and around 5mn bus and tourist operators across India.Truck operators claim they were suffering as the 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. The transporters are also miffed that the sale of used assets attracts double taxation under the GST and want this provision scrapped.It said the double taxation - 28% GST while buying and selling trucks - was killing the truckers.The transporters also said they were not able to lift goods from unregistered traders because it would mean they would have to pay tax on behalf of the unregistered business under RCM.Among many other issues related to GST, the transporters are also protesting the rise in diesel prices and the fuel being kept out of the new tax system. They demand that taxes on diesel should be rationalised in accordance with international markets and on the basis of crude oil prices.The strike has hit supplies across India, including of food.Around 500,000 trucks went off the roads in Tamil Nadu.“The trucks are participating in the two-day token strike. The business loss in the state will be around Rs5,000 crore, while at the national level it will be nearly 10 times that figure,” AIMTC official P V Subramani said.The strike halted goods movement across Karnataka as all trucks in the state have stopped plying.