New Delhi: The nationwide indefinite truckers strike seeking lower sales tax entered its second day on Thursday.
The strike has been effective in Gujarat, Punjab, Uttaranchal and south India, barring Kerala, where truck associations haven't joined in.
In Maharashtra, trucks ferrying perishables like vegetables, fruits and milk are plying as usual.
Truck associations in Gujarat are taking Rs 11,000 each from trucks that have not joined the strike.
There will be another round of talks between the Finance Ministry and Truckers' Association in Delhi on Thursday.
The strike could slow industrial output and hurt diesel sales.
A similar week-long strike in August 2004 pulled monthly diesel sales down 9.3 per cent from a year earlier, while annual growth in industrial output slowed to 7.9 per cent from 8.4 per cent in the previous month because of disrupted shipments.
Lohara said the majority of the nearly four million trucks which would stay off the road were long-distance cargo carriers, consuming between 75 and 80 litres of diesel a day.
He said oil firms have been forcing commercial vehicles to meet half of their fuel consumption through costlier branded diesel for the last ten days.
G C Daga, director of marketing at Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest fuel retailer, said sales of the cheaper fuel were still freely available.
"We are selling normal diesel to truckers at our retail outlets on highways, everywhere it is available ... only in cities are we encouraging people to buy branded fuel," he said.
India caps the prices of normal petrol and diesel sold through fuel stations but no such price control exists for branded fuels, which are still far cheaper than if prices were market-determined.
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