Dimapur, September 28 (MExN): The coordination committee of the Dimapur District Truck Drivers Welfare Trade Union (DDTDWTU) and Dimapur District Truck Owners Association (DDTOA) has appealed to the Municipal Affairs Department to reconsider its move to lease out collection of toll taxes and fees for commercial vehicles to private individuals/ firms etc in Dimapur municipality from the month of October 2016. The committee made the appeal “in the interest and welfare of its members and the general consumers and public.”
A press release issued by DDTDWTU President, H Kaiho Zhimo and DDTOA President, Hokheto Kiba stated that the members of the two unions form majority of the payers of such toll fees and taxes, and “as such the voice and practical problems faced by truckers when such a move is made should also be heard.”
The two unions also maintained that prior to the tolls collected by Dimapur Municipal Council staff, “innumerable harassment by way of collecting tolls fees above the prescribed amount was shouldered upon the truckers and other allied commercial vehicles by the collector of the lessee who enjoy close proximity with the authority and whose primary objective is to make maximum profit within a given period where undeniably the general consumer and public are at the receiving end.”
Therefore, DDTDWTU and DDTOA have appealed to the authority concerned to heed to the voice of the tax payers on practical grounds.
“However, should the department concerned decide to adamantly go without taking into consideration the welfare and interest of its tax payers, the members of the two unions should not be held accountable for any untoward incident arising owing to refusal of nonpayment of such tax,” they added.
