Comments
Public transport was thrown out of gear in Delhi on Monday as petrol pump dealers and bus and taxi drivers went on a strike, protesting against the high VAT on fuel.
Nearly 400 fuel retail outlets were shut in the capital, hitting car owners and commuters hard.
The VAT on petrol and diesel in Delhi is ₹17.31 and ₹11 a litre respectively. Due to the higher local levies here, petrol is cheaper in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh by ₹2.50 a litre and in Haryana by ₹1.30 a litre.
Sales drop
“We have asked the Delhi government to remove the VAT disparity between Delhi and the neighbouring States,” said Nischal Singhania, President of the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association. “Over the past 13 days, there has been a 20 per cent drop in petrol sales and 30 per cent fall in diesel sales across the capital. This is because consumers are moving outside Delhi to refuel their vehicles.”
“Nearly 400 retail outlets participated in the strike. On an average, there is a sale of 66 lakh kilolitres of fuel at these outlets. If this disparity continues, we estimate that the sale of auto fuels in the national capital will fall to 40 lakh kilolitres,” Singhania added.
Around 20 petrol pumps that are company-owned and company-operated did not participate in the strike on Monday.
Taxi, auto drivers protest
Taxi and auto drivers unions had also called for a strike to protest various issues including the fuel price hike and low fares charged by aggregators, which is impacting the business of traditional operators.
The drivers registered with the aggregators were also suffering, said several unions of cab and taxi owners and operators.
Several unions of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) drivers also staged a protest against the dual employment policy of DTC, under which contractual employees earn far lesser than the permanent ones.
“Almost 70 per cent of the drivers and conductors participated in a protest in front of the DTC headquarters, taking a day’s leave,” said Abhishek, Secretary of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU). “The protest was a show of solidarity for a strike called on October 29,” he said, adding that DTC should be given a more modern bus fleet. Profit is not the main aim of public transport, he further said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.