In a big relief for travelers the Himachal Pradesh government has taken back its recent decision to increase entry tax on vehicles as the Chief Minister of Himachal Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced in the Legislative Assembly that the old rates will continue with this now 5-seater vehicles will pay only ₹70 and 6 to 12-seater vehicles will pay ₹110 just like before.
Earlier the government had increased the tax from ₹70 to ₹170 for 5-seater vehicles and from ₹110 to ₹130 for bigger vehicles and this hike proposal led to strong protests especially in Punjab and Haryana. People living in border areas of Punjab came out on roads to protest and taxi drivers and local residents were unhappy with the sudden increase and there was opposition inside Himachal Pradesh as well.
The new rates were supposed to start from midnight today (Tuesday) and before that some protesters in Punjab had warned that they would block roads leading into Himachal if the decision was not taken back.
BJP MLA Randhir Sharma raised the issue in the Assembly saying the protests in Punjab and Haryana could create law and order problems in border areas and BJP leaders also protested outside the Assembly before the session.
The Himachal government had increased taxes by ₹100 to ₹280 earlier which also led to tension between states and Punjab had even hinted at putting a similar tax on Himachal vehicles and now after the rollback the situation is expected to settle and travel between the states should continue smoothly.