New Delhi, August 24
The truck operators today threatened to intensify their nationwide strike, that entered the fourth day today, if the Finance Ministry failed to abolish 10.2 per cent service tax imposed on the “goods transport agents”.

The inflation is likely to cross 8 per cent next week as the prices of vegetables, fruits and other essential commodities have gone up by 50-75 per cent due to the ongoing transporters’ strike.

The All-India Petrol Dealers Federation has also assured the truck operators that 22,000 petrol pump dealers in the country will go on strike in their favour if the government declined to accept their demands.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr B.N.Dhumal, President, All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), said, “The government must understand that by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) or by dividing the unions it cannot force us to call off the strike. Rather the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister should take the initiative to end the deadlock that was causing Rs 500-crore loss to the transport industry and Rs 15,000-crore loss to the economy daily”.

Mr Dhumal apprehended that inflation would touch new heights with the implementation of the service tax on the transport sector, as the transport costs would rise by 20-25 per cent due to lack of any set off mechanism in this sector.

“We will stop the supply of essential commodities like milk, vegetables and water from August 26 morning if the Finance Minister does not invite us for talks tomorrow,” he said, adding that talks with the lower-rank government officials had no meaning since they did not have the power to take policy decisions.

The AIMTC president claimed that 3750 truck operators’ associations across the country were participating in the strike. “The strike is total in all parts of the country. The loading and unloading activities at all the ports, including Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, have already come to a standstill,” he said.

Referring to the official release of the Finance Ministry issued today that “the ministry was ready to give representation to the transport workers on a committee which is to be set up to look into the procedural problems faced by them,” Mr Dhumal said they had no faith in such committees.

He lamented that the New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka governments had invoked ESMA to break the strike.

“We are just demanding that the government should follow the agreement signed in 1997 with the transporters that service tax will not be imposed on the road transport sector,” said Mr S.K. Mittal, vice- president, AIMTC.

He posed a query to the Finance Minister whether the service tax would not have a cascading effect on the economy and lead to inspector raj, since the truck operators were already paying heavy taxes to the tune of over Rs 2.75 lakh annually.