Thousands of truckers stayed off the roads for the fifth day on Wednesday to protest a new service tax, disrupting movement of goods and pushing up prices.
The All India Motor Transport Congress, the country's largest truck union with nearly 3 million vehicles, rejected appeal by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday to end the strike saying the agitation would continue till the government withdraws the 10 per cent service tax.
"The strike is total in all parts of the country. There is no loading or unloading of goods taking place anywhere in the country," said B N Dhumal, president, AIMTC.
Chidambaram at a late night press conference had clarified that the new tax would only apply to booking agents and not to truck owners or transporters.
AIMTC president B N Dhumal said: "They (the government) are making futile attempts to divide the transport community into different segments. What they ignore is that all the different components of the industry are neatly woven together and have a symbiotic relation. Any change or problem in one segment disturbs the whole chain. Therefore, it is childish to claim that only the goods booking agencies are to pay service tax and that the truck owners/ operators shall not be affected by it. In fact, it is impossible to segregate the two."
The strike could fuel inflation, which hit a three-and-a half-year high of 7.96 per cent. A nine-day truckers strike in April last year crippled deliveries and slowed quarterly industrial growth to 4.9 per cent, compared with over 6 per cent growth between January and March that year.
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