Cuttack, Nov. 24: Truckers today warned that the ripple effect of demonetisation has derailed the transportation sector across the country and this would hit the supply of essential commodities in the state.

The Centre's decision to demonetise higher value notes on November 8 has hit truckers across the state with the liquidity crunch forcing several owners to keep their vehicles idle, as 80 per cent of the business is cash-based.

"The weekly withdrawal limit fixed for us (Rs 24,000 from savings account and Rs 50,000 from current accounts) has had a paralysing effect and brought the transport business to a standstill," Odisha Truck Owners' Federation general secretary Rabi Satpathy said.

"We welcome the demonetisation policy. But, if the government does not increase the withdrawal limit and the situation is allowed to persist, the supply of essential commodities and other consumable goods will be affected increasingly. It will also cripple the lives of 20 lakh people in the state directly or indirectly dependent on the transport business," Satpathy said today.

Truckers' representatives said several inter-state trucks had to be pulled off the road as their owners were not able to meet the expenses required to run a trip. The number, a truck owner said, was increasing everyday. For each inter-state trip, the expenses vary between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000.

The situation has worsened in recent days as the transporters are not able to pay the truckers in cash because of the liquidity crunch. Cheque payments, to meet drivers' running expenses during the trip, are also not possible.

Odisha Truck Owners' Federation president Bibhuti Prasad Das said: "The withdrawal limit is very low and that has severely affected our operations."

He said: "The process has hit the supply chain and slowed down the movement of goods. Supplies of essential commodities and other consignments have either dropped or halted in some places."

"The transportation of finished aluminium products from Nalco at Angul to various parts of the country started to drop since November 9, the day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the demonetisation announcement. But the trickle had come to a standstill over the past week, paralysing nearly 2,500 trucks engaged in the job across the state," said Das, who is also the president of the Angul Truck Owners' Association.

Nearly two lakh trucks run in the state and 60 per cent of these make inter-state trips. Around 70,000 of the trucks stopped at some place or the other, a representative of the truckers said.

Federation vice-president Dilip Kumar Pani said inter-state truck movement had been affected the most because apart from diesel and tolls, all other expenses were paid in cash.

"The owners are managing to run only intra-state trucks as the expense per trip ranges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000," said Pani, a representative of the Talcher Truck Owners' Association.