(Updates with end to strike)
NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - Indian truckers said on Wednesday they had called off a nine-day strike that paralysed freight movement nationwide following talks with the government.
"The strike has been ended across the country," said Gopal Naidu, a member of the negotiating team of the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), the country's biggest truck union with 2.7 million vehicles in its fold.
He gave no details about the deal to end the strike which business groups estimated cost wholesalers, retailers and industry 15 billion rupees a day ($317 million).
But local television reports said the government had accepted nearly all the truckers' demands that included a call for stable fuel prices, immunity from a planned Value Added Tax and minimum freight rates. One sticking point was the truckers' demand for exemption from paying road tolls, the reports said.
The strike crippled deliveries, created food shortages, paralysed ports and halted production at some plants.
The decision to call off the strike came as the stoppage showed signs of unravelling. The AIMTC's affiliate unions had already ended the strike in the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Gujarat.
The Indian unit of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it had suspended production at its plant on the outskirts of the southern city of Bangalore because the strike had hit the supply of components.
India's largest carmaker, Maruti Udyog Ltd, a unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp , said output at its plant in suburban New Delhi was about 20 percent below normal due to the strike.
But authorities at Kandla port, one of India's busiest, said cargo movement was nearly back to normal after some truck operators returned to work late on Tuesday, allowing the port to resume operations.