Mr. Bal Malkit Singh, the President of “All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC)" was interviewed by TruckStrategy.com where he addressed various Issues Affecting Road Transport Sector. In this section he discuss on Hike in TPP and Carriage by Road Act.
1.HIKE IN TPP
The road transport industry is aggrieved and pained at the unilateral hike of TPP. An expert committee constituted by AIMTC which studied and analyzed the exposure draft circulated by IRDA and represented their opinions and reservations during their meeting with Chairman IRDA, on March 8, 2011. Another proposal to abolish third party pool was circulated albeit at the instance of private insurers lobby and without consultations with major stakeholders a decision was taken resulting in the current hike.
Motor insurance rates were hiked from April 1 2012 with the IRDA notifying new rates for motor third-party premium ranging from 18% to 23% apart from cascading effect of 2% hike in the service tax.
The commercial vehicles segment will be worst affected by the hike. The heavy raise in TP premium is beyond the reach of poor commercial vehicle owners and on the face of it is not acceptable. We the industry will not be able to absorb such hike when it is difficult to make two end meet. Today we are in a situation where we are not able to absorb steep hike in T.P. premium by almost 68% effective from January-2011.
We had requested to IRDA for the meeting to understand and clarify all these changes carriers but we are not heard from them till date inspite of repeated reminders and as such the largest stake holder of this segment is kept in dark. It is surprising to know why we are not being informed and consent not obtained. We condemn and deplore the current trend of unilateral decision making at all the levels without consultations with the stakeholders. We are sure that our trade may not be able to absorb the collective effect of all these decisions and it may lead to some reaction which may be unwarranted for all the segments of the Society, Trade, Commerce and Industry. The road transport fraternity of India is not at all happy or will lie low if the current hike is pushed through.
We hope that the prudence shall prevail and any decision taken having an adverse bearing on the stakeholders be reviewed in time.
2. CARRIAGE BY ROAD ACT
The road transport fraternity welcomes the intentions for which the registration is being professed in the Act. We reiterate that principally the road transport fraternity agrees to go for Registration if the issues raised by it regarding de-registration, capping of carrier liability and certain impractical provisions and that had been understood and appreciated by the Ministry, are settled. We have already submitted detailed representations earlier on the subject and awaiting their response that will bring respite to lacs of people engaged in this trade.
Recently a meeting of the empowered committee constituted by Dr C. P. Joshi, Honorable Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways regarding Carriage by Road Act, 2007 was held on 07.05.2012 at Dehradun (Uttarakhand) and on July 2, 2012 at MoRTH, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Shri Deepak Upreti, Transport Commissioner & Principal Secretary (Transport) to the Government of Rajasthan to resolve all the irritants. The discussions were held in positive environment and all our issues were heard considerately. The chairman assured to address all the grievances and we are hopeful that needful will be done. We have been waiting for the final round of meeting for iron out all irritants between the Government & the Road Transport Sector.
