Millions of truckers from across the country are set to go on an indefinite strike from today, demanding a slew of actions from government, including lowering diesel prices and toll fees, a union leader said yesterday.
The indefinite strike was to press the demands of reducing fuel price and for a uniform national pricing with quarterly revision, transparency and reduction in third party insurance premium.
Unionised truckers claim over 9.3 million members and the strike was announced on May 17. Government is engaged in last-ditch efforts to persuade truckers in the highly road transport concentrated economy not to go ahead with their call, officials said.
Abolition of tax deduction at sources, rationalisation of presumptive income under Sections 44 AE of Income Tax Act were the other demands. The AIMTC also demanded the government to address the E-Way Bill operational issues, abolish direct port delivery scheme and streamline port congestion.
“We held a meeting with Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday but that was inconclusive. We met finance minister Piyush Goyal at 2130 hrs yesterday,” Bal Malkit Singh, chairman of the All-India Motor Transport Congress core committee, told a news source.
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