The lorry operators have urged the Centre to extend the suspension of tolls at the toll plazas across the country till December 30 to enable the lorry industry to stabilise its operations.
G. R. Shanmugappa, general secretary of the South Zone Motor Transporters Welfare Association, an apex body of lorry owners of the southern states representing 9.5 lakh lorries, told reporters here on Wednesday that the lorry industry in the whole country was facing acute liquidity crunch.
After the demonetisation process was launched in the country, more than 60 per cent of the 9.5 lakh lorries are severely affected. Shortage of currency of lower denomination had badly hit the lorry owners, as 80 per cent of the running cost (the cost incurred in plying lorries) is done on cash basis.
The Rs. 50,000 withdrawal limit a week was also not adequate enough to the lorry operators to meet the running cost.
The petrol retail outlets across the country will stop accepting the scrapped currency from the midnight of Thursday (November 24) and this too will worsen the situation and the entire lorry industry will put into severe crisis. Such a situation is expected to totally halt the entire lorry transport operation.
Mr. Shanmugappa said that about 1.20 lakh lorries from the southern states are at present stranded in the North, West and Eastern states of the country. Slowly they have resumed their return journey. The non-acceptance of scrapped currency in the petrol bunks and the resumption of collection of toll at toll plazas will affect their return journey.
Mr. Shanmugappa, who was also the former chairman of the All India Motor Transport Congress, said that the association has already appraised the seriousness of the problem to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley twice.
The Finance Minister assured to consider the demands of the association. But, the Centre has not come out with any concrete announcement on the demands so far. Once the Centre continued its earlier announcements, the lorry operations will come to a grinding halt in the country, which will affect the movement of freight worth Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,500 crores. This in turn will affect the entire economy of the country.
Mr. Shanmugappa demanded the Centre to continue the suspension of tolls till December 30, fix the withdrawal limit of cash from the banks at Rs. 20,000 per truck per trip. The government should extend the deadline for the remittance of all sorts of taxes such as vehicle tax, road tax, and permit fee through the scrapped currency till December 30. The government should also direct all the motor finance companies to defer the collection of loan dues etc for three months, he added.
