With the passage of Finance Bill on Friday, the government on Friday ruled out rollback of service tax imposed on goods booking agents, but expressed its willingness to sort out any procedural difficulty faced by either truck owners or operators.
"We have made it clear that any rollback (of 10 per cent service tax on goods booking agents) is not possible. But we will take the truckers along with us in sorting out any procedural difficulty," Central Board of Excise and Custom Member S K Bharadwaj told reporters.
The finance ministry mandarins were ready for a 'gruelling' session with the truckers to listen to them and to make the procedure of collection of new tax easier, he said.
On the truckers' demand that they would meet only Finance Minister P Chidambaram, he said: "There are certain steps in the government which need to be followed. Truckers have met the finance secretary who is one of the senior-most officers of the ministry."
According to an estimate, the transport industry contributes Rs 95,000 crore (Rs 950 billion) to the nation's gross domestic product.
The finance minister had announced a levy of 10 per cent service tax on goods booking agents, and to protest the decision, truckers went on an indefinite nation-wide strike seven days back under the banner of AIMTC.
The net effect of the new tax would be below 5 per cent, Bharadwaj said, adding that the tax was on value addition only and it was not inflationary.
Harkishen Singh Surjeet intervenes
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet on Friday held discussions with agitating truckers, who are on an indefinite strike against imposition of service tax, after talks between AIMTC and finance ministry failed this morning.
"I agree with their (truckers) demand and the government is working in the direction to end the strike," Surjeet said after meeting the members of All India Motor Transport Congress.
The AIMTC office bearers were invited by Surjeet after the fresh round of talks between them and revenue secretary failed with the agitating truckers demanding release of their office bearers.
"Our talks have failed," AIMTC managing committee member Deepak Sachdeva told reporters after an hour-long meeting with revenue secretary Vineeta Rai.
"The AIMTC got a call from CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet to come to the finance ministry. We were told we would get an audience with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, but that didn't take place," he said.
Asked about the arrests of AIMTC office bearers, Surjeet said the strike cannot end with the arrests.
"We have full faith in Surjeet. He has assured us that he will talk to Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the vexed issue," Gurinder Pal Singh of AIMTC told reporters after the meeting.