Truck Associations to Govt: Extend the Last Date of GST & Road Tax

The truck transport service owners have requested the government to extend the due date of payments of road tax and Goods and Services Tax (GST) in view of the outbreak of COVID-19. The owners requested that the dates should be extended to 30th September 2020 because of low trade, insufficient profits and other problems faced by them because of the pandemic. They said that the concern of penalties is increasing amongst the truckers. The transport associations are a little worried that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is not following the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs to allow the transportation of both essential and non-essential products. 

“After the Centre relaxed norms on expired national permits, we have also requested the government to grant an extension on payment of road tax. The issues of the GST e-way bill Know the details on blocking and unblocking e-way bill feature for non-filers of GST return. Also, we solved general queries through important frequently asked questions. Read more expiry are yet to be resolved. There is a growing concern of overzealous personnel extorting and penalizing truckers once the trucks start moving. Other concerns about, insurance premium, goods tax, road tax, etc. need to be addressed urgently. On average we are facing a loss of Rs 2000 crore per day,” Kultaran Singh Atwal, president All India Motor Transport Congress said. Under GST, transporters have to carry an e-way bill for the movement of goods.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that they are also worried about the jam being created by a load of vehicles struck on highways because of the lockdown. The lockdown has forced approx 6 lakh trucks to be on hold from any movement although the Ministry of Home Affairs has allowed the transport without any restrictions.

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Singh said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has not acted aptly according to the needs of the truck owners. He said that the officials have been stopping the trucks a lot on the highways mostly near Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. They are also concerned that the customers are also asking for fresh loads of products which is not possible because of the slow movement of trucks. The truck associations have no staff as they have moved to their villages because of the lockdown. The factories and warehouses are also closed because of the same. All these problems have made transportation very very worse.

“More than 85% of the trucking population is of small operators having one to five trucks and once their wheels stop moving there is no other source of income for them. In the ongoing lockdown, there is no business or revenue inflow to the transporter. Given the present critical situation of the trade, the poor truckers and transporters are devastated and the situation has been further aggravated by the lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis. It will be very difficult for them to pay road tax, goods tax or token tax till September 30,” a letter written to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari by the apex body of registered goods trucks said.

On the same date, the Home Secretary, Mr. Ajay Bhalla said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has made some changes in the directions issued under the Disaster Management Act five days ago.