File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_1997/97-04-08.015, message 32


From: "Curtis Price" <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org>
Date:          Wed, 2 Apr 1997 07:56:15 +0000
Subject:       (Fwd) India truck owners vow to press on with strike


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 2 Apr 1997 01:47:05 -0800
From:          NewsHound <speak-AT-hound.com>

Reply-to:      speak-AT-hound.com
Subject:       India truck owners vow to press on with strike



Here is your NewsHound news article from your "STRIKES" hound with a score "64."  For more information, visit the NewsHound website at http://www.newshound.com or send an email to speak-AT-hound.com.


Posted at 1:02 a.m. PST Wednesday, April 2, 1997
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India truck owners vow to press on with >>strike<<

By Sabyasachi Mitra

NEW DELHI, April 2 (Reuter) - India's truck owners on Wednesday vowed to continue their >>strike<<, which has kept two million vehicles off the roads, until the government agrees to scrap a planned 
ransport tax and rise in insurance premiums.

``The agitation will continue till our demands are fully met,'' S.P. Singh, a spokesman for All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), told Reuters.

Truck owners launched the >>strike<< on Tuesday in protest against the transport tax and surge in insurance premiums. The protest has kept some 2.2 million trucks off the roads and crippled ground t
ansport of goods.

The AIMTC represents owners of about two million heavy trucks, one million light and medium-weight trucks and some 60,000 booking and delivery companies. Truckers move about 60 percent of India's go
ds.

The AIMTC objects to a five percent service tax on road transport which Finance Minister P. Chidambaram proposed in the federal budget for the 1997/98 (April-March) financial year.

It also opposes a decision by state-owned insurance companies which the transport congress said would raise insurance premiums between 300 and 400 percent.

Singh said truck owners would gather on Wednesday to discuss a government offer to break the deadlock, and later meet government negotiators.

``I am very optimistic. We had very positive talks with them in the past two days,'' Yogendra Narain, the highest ranking civil servant in Surface Transport Ministry, told Reuters.

The government said on Tuesday that parliament would have to discuss the service tax proposals before they could take effect. The government has offered to put off the rise in insurance premiums.

Booking and delivery at nearly 60,000 transport companies across the country have come to a standstill.

``Unless the service tax and high insurance premiums are withdrawn, we are not going to call off the >>strike<<,'' said Ajaypal Singh, president of Uttar Pradesh Motor Transport Association.

Trade groups have appealed to the truck owners to call off the >>strike<< in view of the current political crisis.

Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda's 10-month-old minority government on Sunday lost the support of its key ally, the Congress party, and must face a vote of confidence by April 11.

``It is not just commerce and industry, the common man will be severely affected if the >>strike<< continues,'' said a spokesman for a northern Indian chamber of commerce.

If it continues, the >>strike<< is expected to push up the prices of essential and perishable commodities.  REUTER Reut02:48 04-02-97 

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