SARGODHA, Nov 22: Crushed stone suppliers and truck owners association have suspended supply to the entire country for the last five days as a protest against imposition of excise duty by the mines department.

Pul 111 is the biggest crushed stone market all over Asia. There are nine leaseholders of stone excavation, about 1,500 stone crushers and 300 goods transport agencies.

In a joint statement, truck trolley transport union secretary Mushtaq Gill and stone suppliers association president Chaudhry Pervez Masood Bajwa said that as per a recent notification, the mine leaseholders were liable to pay Rs5 per ton as excise duty to the government from Nov 8. They said the duty was being allegedly collected from trucks and loaders instead of mine leaseholders through a contractor, Nisar and Comany.

They said they had approached the officials concerned but no body had tried to look into the matter.

They said almost half of the total workers were daily wagers who had not done any work for the last five days.

The office-bearers said they would not resume their business till the withdrawal of ‘illegal’ tax.