Millions of truckers from across the country are on an indefinite strike on Friday, demanding a slew of actions from government, including lowering diesel prices and toll fees, PTI reported. The All India Motor Transport Congress, which represents interests of around 93 lakh truckers across the nation had called for the strike with support from the state, district and taluk level transporters. It was announced on May 17. The strike is expected to impact goods supply to a large extent.

Bal Malkit Singh, chairman of the All-India Motor Transport Congress core committee told PTI that the truckers will stop rolling from 06:00 hours on Friday and pegged the likely daily loss at Rs 4,000 crore for them.

Truckers key demands include a reduction in central and state taxes by getting diesel under the GST (goods and service tax) so that price of the deregulated commodity can be reduced, he said. Singh said truckers are also against the "flawed and non-transparent" toll collection system that favours road concessioners and alleged that the time and fuel loss goes up to Rs 1.5 trillion annually on account of it.

Truckers are also miffed at high insurance premia and want a reduction in third-party premium, exemption on third-party premia from GST, he said. Apart from this, they are also pressing for exemptions and abolitions in direct taxes, national permits for all buses and trucks and also doing away with the direct port delivery tendering system, he said.

The School Bus and Company Bus Owners Association of Maharashtra have also extended their support to the truckers' strike.

Established in 1936, the All-India Motor Transport Congress and calls itself as the apex body of transporters representing over 93 lakh truckers and around 50 lakh buses, tourist taxi and cab operators.

With inputs from PTI