The Hindu Business Line : Toyota shuts unit for maintenance — Truckers' strike may force Kinetic to suspend operations

TOYOTA-Kirloskar Motor Company has shut down its factory for a week as part of its annual maintenance, a Toyota official said. The factory would reopen next week he said.

But this has come in handy for the car maker to tide over the crisis arising out of the recent truckers' strike. Toyota had earlier said that it was watching the situation arising out of the strike and had taken precautions by stocking enough materials. However, if the strike continued for some more days, it could face problems.

A spokesperson of Kinetic Engineering said the company would wait till tomorrow before taking a decision whether to close the factory. She said if the strike continued for another couple of days, the two-wheeler maker might have to close down the factory for a few days.

"We follow the justin time policy and our supplies could suffer if the strike continues," the spokesperson said.

She said the company had to close down the factory for a week because of the truckers' strike and it had to suffer production losses.

Last April, Toyota was forced to halt production because of the truckers' strike. The strike, which lasted 14 days, was in protest of the frequent rise in diesel prices, the plan to introduce Value Added Tax and the move to scrap 15-year-old trucks from service. Ford and Hyundai too were affected by the strike at the time.

The All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), which represents most of the truckers in the country, called for a nationwide strike last week against the mode of collection of service tax. They have demanded that the sales tax department should be made the collecting agents for service tax instead of making transporters the agents.

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