THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government contractors who were on strike for the last four months, decided to call off their strike on Thursday.
This followed the government decision to pay the pending dues of contractors as well as to reintroduce the compounding tax system.
The special cabinet on Thursday had decided to reinstate the compounding tax system with a hike of 1 per cent.
The government decided to promulgate an ordinance in this regard as the Finance Bill has already been passed.
Public works in the state had come to a standstill following the contractors’ strike.
Kerala Government Contractors’ Association (KGCA) president Varghese Kannampally said that the association had decided to call off the strike as the government had taken favourable decisions.
“The government decided to reintroduce the compounding tax system. Apart from this, the government assured that bills around Rs 400 crore pending till December 31, 2013, will be passed before Onam,’’ he said.
However, he said that the works will be only started once the contractors get the money.
The KGCA had sought a clearance of pending bills to the tune of Rs 2050 crore from November 2013 to July 2014.
‘Express’ had reported on Wednesday that the agitation will be called off based on the assurance of the Chief Minister in connection with the issues that they had raised.
The bills of around Rs 1600 crore are pending in connection with the works done under Roads section during the period between November 2013 to July 2014.
Bills to the tune of Rs 300 crore and Rs 150 crore are pending for works done under the sections of Buildings and Irrigation respectively, during the same period.