The truck operators, who are on strike since Saturday to protest a new service tax, are likely to meet finance ministry officials on Thursday in a bid to end their agitation that has disrupted movement of goods and pushed up prices.
"Our strike is on. For the sixth day today, millions of trucks are off the road," said J M Saksena, secretary general of All India Motor Transport Congress, the country's largest truck union.
He said the striking unions will have an internal meeting before they meet finance ministry officials in the late afternoon to resolve the crisis arising out of imposition of a 10 per cent service tax on freight booking agents.
"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.
Meanwhile, the truckers strike has led to a spurt in the prices of vegetables and perishable goods.
Although the truckers have excluded essential commodities from their stir, vegetable producers are finding it difficult to arrange transport from rural areas to Mumbai, thus leading to a shortage in the markets.
"We had a few rounds of meetings with the revenue secretary without any fruitful results. The official keeps on changing the stand in every meeting. When it came to decision taking, she leaves the meeting on the pretext that she had to obtain finance minister's approval. That is why we are requesting Finance Minister P Chidambaram to listen to us and take final decision," said J M Saksena.
The strike could fuel inflation, which hit a three and 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.
"Vegetable producers have a choice of either transporting their produce to Mumbai at exorbitant price or let it perish in the fields itself," market sources said.
Maharashtra contributes significantly in vegetable produce and several of its agriculture produces have a good market not just in Mumbai but several other states in the north, sources said.
However, with the truckers strike the perishable produce is not being transported incurring heavy losses to the farmers.
President of Maharashtra Tankers and Lorry Owners Association, Daljit Singh, had said that while vegetable producers and traders were unhappy with the stir, truckers could hardly do anything but to protest against the 'unjust' decisions of the Union government.
Almost all vegetables are witnessing price rise in the range of 20 to 40 per cent, market sources said.
President of Maharashtra Tankers and Lorry Owners Association claimed the strike had affected farmers a lot, while other business sectors have also been affected.
"Institutions engaged in imports and exports are also affected as they have not been able to honour commitments," he said.
Singh said, all truckers bodies in Maharashtra are keeping a watch on the developments taking place in Delhi, where apex bodies are holding discussions with the government.
On Wednesday, an apex body of 240 associations -- Vahan Bachaav Kruti Samiti -- related to transport in Maharashtra joined the transporters' strike.
The truckers are also planning to take up the unresolved issue of ban on 8/15 years old heavy vehicles in Mumbai soon.
A report from Nasik said that the truckers would take out a morcha on August 30 to protest the tax levied on them.
