
Chandigarh: Union food processing minister
Harsimrat Kaur Badal today requested union road transport and highways minister
Nitin Gadkari to exclude tractors used for agricultural purpose from being
considered as commercial vehicles as this was having a detrimental effect on
lives of lakhs of farmers in the country.
Mrs Badal, who has written a letter to Mr Nitin Gadkari on the issue, said as per new rules tractors have been excluded from the category of non-transport vehicles. This effectively means that tractors used for agricultural purposes would be treated at par with commercial transport vehicles.
The Union minister said once this new
law was implemented all laws governing commercial vehicles would be applicable
on tractors including requirement of permit, minimum educational qualification
for driving besides the financial constraint of higher GST which would go up
from 12 per cent to 28 per cent.
Requesting the road transport and
highways ministry to reconsider this decision, Mrs Badal said given the
demographic profile and economic condition of farmers in the country,
especially in the state of Punjab which was an agrarian state, tractors needed
to be kept out of the purview of commercial vehicles.
She said this was also needed because farmers were already distressed and would be further burdened with increased tax on tractors.