Tolls still make transporters' ride bumpy

Despite increasing road connectivity programmes that are being laid out across the country, the truck and transport operators largely hold on to their earlier demands as far as expectations from the Budget are concerned.

However, the two issues that are of primary concern to them, we learned from across the board interactions with the industry players, are toll tax and GST on fuel.

Many of the big and small transport operators that we interacted voiced their worries about the toll rates which are not only very high but their collection mechanism very time consuming.

"The tax should be uniform on per KM basis and mechanism employed for collection should be improved by way of electronic / RFID tags so that vehicles need not have to wait at the border check posts," is a simple solution offered by a leading player.

On GST on fuel, they seemed to be unanimous in their demand that fuel prices should be uniform across all states of the country. Currently, the difference in the tax between states is as high as Rs 5 per litre due to high Sales Tax prevailing in some of the states.

Some of other important areas that the operators expect to get solace are given below:

Single permit for India: If one single permit is introduced, the vehicle can ply all over India which will benefit both the consumers & truckers.

Overloading: Even though the central government has banned overloading, it still persists within state boundaries. Instead of penalizing the truckers stiff penalty should be imposed on the consignor who encourages it.

Octroi / entry tax / escort tax: All these taxes lead to a lot of waste of time at the check posts and leads to corruption. They should be replaced by way of Cess, like Gujarat.

Also various forms by various states should be abolished as the details sought by them are already in the invoices. Even a small mistake in a forms could lead to 3 to 10 times the penalty of the value of the goods.

Cash payment to drivers: From the current Rs 35,000 the limit should be revised to Rs 1 Lakh.

Industry status: Road transport is the second largest employer after agriculture. With more than 60 lakh commercial vehicles, the sector directly or indirectly creates job opportunities for 12 crore people.

Ambulance on highways: The government needs to provide for ambulances every 50 KM stretch so that precious human lives could be saved.

Tracking devices: They will help in controlling hijacking / theft on the highways and hence tracking devices should be made mandatory on all vehicles.

According to a leading consultant of the sector, besides these areas of concern, where the government needs to take a stand for the development of the sector, the speed with which the road projects are being implemented require some introspection.

"The ambitious targets are fine, but do they conduct a road audit to validate serviceability of the infrastructure which should serve for years." The projects are also need more transparency, he added.

Governments at the centre and states need to work out a viable land acquisition programme to remove the hurdles that come in the way of implementing the projects. "It is due to these bottlenecks that even mega projects like Golden Quadrilateral and South-North and East West Corridors are still far from complete," he said.