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IRIPA strike disrupts ongoing railway works
Members of the Indian Railway Infrastructure Providers Association (IRIPA) have been on an indefinite strike since August 20 protesting against the imposition of the GST.
Hyderabad: Members of the Indian Railway Infrastructure Providers Association (IRIPA) have been on an indefinite strike since August 20 protesting against the imposition of the GST.
The Association’s demands include reimbursement of additional burden imposed by the GST for the works tendered before July 1, 2017. The Association is also asking the government to bear the GST being the end service receiver for tenders after July 1, 2017.
The IRIPA alleged that reimbursement was given in all other sectors, including the subsidiaries of Indian Railways such as Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) but it has not been extended to the 6,500 odd railway contractors across the country.
The volume of works across the Indian Railways is about Rs one lakh crore and about Rs 4,000 crore worth works are underway in the SCR that were tendered before the implementation of GST. The IRIPA have been striking in 72 divisions in 16 zones.
Track-related works badly hit
The most affected are the contractors related to track related works. In South Central Railway (SCR) there are close to 400 contractors and a sizable number have taken up track development works. Presently, the works over SCR amount to Rs 4,000 crore. Speaking to The Hans India here on Wednesday, Secretary of IRIPA K Surender Rao said, “Prior to GST, there was no VAT for track related works. Now we have to straightaway pay 18 %. We want to Indian Railways to absorb the GST or compensate the contractors for the works tendered before July 1, 2017.”
The contractors in SCR have a turnover of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 4 crore. Around 70 contractors staged a dharna at the SCR headquarters on Wednesday. D Srinivas, a contractor and member of IRIPA said, “GST has not factored in track related works. Whenever supply of material is involved, VAT comes into play but under the new GST, there is a tax which we never imagined when the works were tendered three years ago. The Indian Railways should reimburse the additional burden as its subsidiaries have done.”
He went to add that the VAT is the highest in SCR. In Rajasthan it is 1%, UP 4%, Maharashtra 2% and in SCR it is 5%.The leaders of IRIPA met the SCR General Manager who assured them that their request would be forwarded to the Railway Board. In the meanwhile, the contractors would be continuing their strike informed a spokesman of IRIPA.
