Truckers bandh on July 20

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh State Lorry Owners Association (APLOA) will hold an emergency general body meeting on July 11 in Vijayawada to discuss the important issues related to the transport sector in view of the proposed nation-wide strike by truck operators on July 20.

The All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has given a call for one-day nation-wide bandh protesting against the hike in diesel prices and increasing taxes. Transport sector is one of the important sectors, which provides livelihood to lakhs of workers across the country.

But, with the frequent rise in diesel prices, the transport sector has gradually plunged into crisis, the lorry owners lamented. In this backdrop, the AIMTC has given a call for the nation-wide strike.

The APLOA, which is affiliated to the AIMTC, will participate in the bandh. Consequently, all trucks in the State will be off the roads. In Andhra Pradesh, nearly 30 lakh workers are directly or indirectly depending on the transport sector.

General Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Lorry Owners Association Y V Eswara Rao told The Hans India, the association general body meeting in Vijayawada will discuss very important issues related to rise in diesel prices, taxes and the proposed strike.

He said one of the important demands of the AIMTC is to reduce the prices of diesel. He said during the last one year, the diesel price shot up by nearly 50 per cent due to policies of the State and Central governments.

The Central government was collecting Rs 15 road cess on the sale of every litre of diesel in the country. The Union government has the sole right to use the cess and the State government has no share on it, he added. Before levying the road cess, the Union government had slashed the excise duty.

If the Centre collects excise duty, it has to distribute 40 per cent of it to the States. Consequently, States too will be benefited if the Union government collets excise duty. Eswara Rao said the Union government cleverly changed its policy and was collecting road cess of Rs 15 per litre because it can solely derive benefit.

If the Centre collects Rs 8 per litre as excise duty, the States will get Rs 3.20 per litre as their share. The truck operators decided to demand the Union government to scrap the road cess and to reduce the third party insurance premium, which was increased from Rs 3,000 per year to nearly Rs 50,000 per year in recent years.

He said the truck operators were suffering from toll taxes, rising prices of tyres, spares etc. Diesel price per litre was only Rs 50 in February 2017. Now, it gradually increased to Rs 74. He pointed out that the AP government was collecting 22 per cent tax on the base rate and additional VAT of Rs 4 per each litre from the customers. This causes huge burden on diesel consumers, he said.

The AP Lorry Owners Association has decided to ask the State government to stop collecting Rs 4 extra tax on diesel per litre. Compared to other States, diesel and petrol price is costlier by Rs 4 in AP.