| More than 1,000 members of these three unions attended the meeting-cum-rally. |
| Punjab State Goods Transport Association Chairman Charan Singh Lohara told Business Standard that truck operators in Punjab were under a huge financial crunch. |
| "We are already paying taxes like road tax, goods tax, national permit as well as cess on diesel and some time back, the Punjab government introduced toll tax also. The number of taxes levied by the government is increasing day by day but the condition of roads, for which transporters pay these taxes, is deteriorating. |
| "The rent of a loaded six-tyre truck from Ludhiana to New Delhi is around Rs 3,600- 3,800. From Ludhiana to New Delhi, a truck has to pay toll tax of Rs 600 (Rs 500 toll tax and Rs 100 as entry fee in New Delhi). A single truck consumes close to 100 litres of diesel for a one-way Ludhiana-New Delhi journey (price per litre of diesel is approximately Rs 30). Now one can easily imagine if the transporter is in profit or loss. We demand that the Punjab government immediately abolish toll tax so that our businesses do not suffer," Lohara said. |
| "Our second demand is that the fluctuation in diesel prices be checked and prices should remain uniform all over the country. The price of diesel in Punjab is approximately Rs 30 per litre and in Maharashtra, it's approximately Rs 39 a litre. So if a truck driver from Punjab goes to Maharashtra, he carries around 1,000 litres of diesel along with him, which weighs around 1 tonne. |
| "The Supreme Court has fixed a limit of 9 tonnes for a six-tyre truck, 15 tonnes for a 10-tyre truck and so on. And if the weight of diesel alone is 1 tonne, then a trucker will be able to carry only 8 tonnes out of fixed 9 tonnes and will go into loss. And if he does overloading to cover that loss, he will have to pay fine. If he doesn't do any of the above, then he will have to pay Rs 9 per litre more on diesel," Lohara added. |
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