Goods vehicles' body calls for 36-hr strike against GST

Kolkata: The Calcutta Goods Transport Association (CGTA) has called for a 36-hour strike across the state starting from 8 am on October 9, protesting against the disruptive policies under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demanded the inclusion of diesel in the new indirect tax's ambit.

"As a part of a nationwide stir, CGTA will observe chakka jam from 8 am of October 9 to 8 pm of October 10 in the state to protest the adverse impact of GST on the sector," general secretary of CGTA Sunil Agarwal said on Saturday.

There are around six lakh goods vehicles that ply across eastern India on a regular basis.

According to Agarwal, the varied policies under GST has resulted in utter confusion and chaos in the road transport sector. "Implementation of GST had put coercive registration and unnecessary compliances by truckers and transporters. The government had put double taxation in the reverse charge mechanism (RCM) and forward charge mechanism (FCM) at 5 percent and 12 percent respectively. The sale of used business assets attracts GST which leads to double taxation by the government," he said.

CGTA demanded that there should be one taxation, five percent RCM in place for the transport sector and no double taxation on sale of used business assets. They further demanded diesel to be brought under the ambit of GST to bring uniformity of its pricing across the country.

"Daily price revisions of diesel prices has been creating huge burden on the sector," said Santosh Saraf, vice-president of CGTA.