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Inflation fears grow
as the truckers' strike takes hold
(BBC) |
Strike action spread across India on Tuesday as
bank workers walked out over pay and a truckers' strike entered its fourth
day.
Nine banking unions totalling about one million members took part in
the one-day strike to press bosses to settle a two-year old pay claim.
Leaders of the United Forum of Bank Unions are due to meet on Wednesday
to discuss further action.
Meanwhile, truckers have halted deliveries in protest at a new tax.
The bank workers' strike appears to have produced a majority stay away
on Tuesday, but it is the truckers' action that could be most economically
damaging for the new, left-wing Congress government.
Nearly two thirds of goods are delivered by road in India.
Talks between the Finance Ministry and the truck owners' group, the
All India Motor Transport Congress, failed to produce a deal on
Monday.
"We could not reach agreement. The strike will continue," an Aimtc
spokesman said.
Truck owners want the government to scrap a 10% tax on freight bookings
unveiled in Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's budget for 2004/05
in July.
Mr Chidambaram has argued that the tax will only hit freight agents,
not truck owners, but the transporters say there is little distinction in
practice.
Aimtc had threatened to halt the movement of vital supplies such as
vegetables, milk, fuel and medicines on Tuesday if its demands were not
met. It appears to have let this deadline lapse.
About 2.5 million trucks are standing idle,
according to Aimtc, but the impact so far has been limited by
stockpiling
.
There are signs that some perishable goods , such as vegetables, are
rising in price, and economists fear that a prolonged strike could push
inflation, currently at about 7%, higher.
Bank workers are demanding that management in the mainly state-owned
banking sector renegotiate a pay deal that lapsed in 2002.
"The strike has affected the entire industry. In Bombay, only a few
branches are open," a Bank of India senior executive said.
"We will go on strike again if we don't succeed this time," said
Vishwas Udagi, joint secretary of the All India Bank Employees'
Association, one of the nine unions taking part.
Bank workers have been offered a 14% pay rise, but are holding out for
18%, he said.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-08-25 13:54