There seems to be no respite for the transport sector which continues to be in doldrums, despite relaxation of the lockdown norms.
The transporters and lorry owners say that recurrent hikes in fuel price, high maintenance cost and pending taxes have left them in the lurch. The transporters and lorry owners have suffered loss of not less than ₹2 lakh per lorry, apart from pending EMIs, taxes and etc, they say.
High operating cost
The hikes in diesel price have delivered a blow on the transport sector which is already struggling owing to no demand in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. The hikes in fuel prices have increased the operations costs by 20% to 25%.
The lorry owners feel that even as the diesel price has gone up up by ₹ 1.79 per litre, the high operating costs cannot be passed on to consumers. About 60 % of the lorries are idle owing to the poor demand, they say.
There are about 1.70 lakh lorries operating in the State, of which 35,000 to 40,000 run in Krishna district alone. The owners have to pay around ₹80,000 as monthly instalments for the loans taken for purchase of a vehicle and the tax ranges between ₹8,500 to ₹10,000 per quarter.
As the lorries remained off the roads during the lockdown, the maintenance cost went up, and the owners had to invest on batteries, lubricants and etc. The battery alone costs ₹10,000 and other costs would add up to another ₹5,000 per vehicle, they say.
Krishna District Lorry Owners Association general secretary Adussumilli Sadasiva Rao says that the road transport sector is bearing the brunt of the back-to-back lockdowns and restrictions on travel. “The demand is yet to limp back to normal even after the lockdown norms were relaxed. The industrial sector is not functioning to its capacity, impacting the transport sector,” he says.
‘Give tax relief’
Lorry owners complain that there is no relief to the sector from the government. “West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu have announced tax exemptions. We request the A.P. government to do the same,” says Mr. Sadasiva Rao.
The Centre has given time to pay the tax up to September 30. Telangana also have announced a grace period for the payment for the second quarter up to July 30. “The A.P. government should waive off the compounding fee on cases filed against the lorry owners who did not pay the taxes,” he adds.
