With a twin motive of promoting bee keeping one hand and giving boost to farm diversification in the state on the other, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today gave nod to abolish VAT on raw honey (unbranded honey) and equipment, boxes, food grade container and wax required for apiary. Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s office said that after having conceded the demand of progressive honey producers, the Chief Minister asked the department to implement this decision at the earliest so as to facilitate the bee keepers besides giving further fillip to the honey production in the state. Likewise, he also announced that 40% subsidy already given to the beekeepers on 50 boxes along with bee would now be available on 100 boxes inclusive of bee. Acceding to another demand put forth by the bee keepers, Mr. Badal gave his consent to send them abroad and to other states within the country for getting training to extract poison and royal jelly from the bees.
He said that the bee keepers would be provided an adequate price for their produce so as to ensure a stable price mechanism for honey. In another significant decision, the Chief Minister asked the Punjab Agriculture University to purchase four machines for extracting honey from the bee on trial basis. He also asked the University to recruit the experts for bee keeping so as to impart quality training to the farmers for encouraging them to adopt this remunerative profession in a big way. The Chief Minister also directed the departments of Home, Excise & Taxation besides Director General of Police to ensure that bee keepers should not be harassed while transporting their bee boxes from one place to another in and outside the state. Mr. Badal also asked the various government departments to grant necessary permission to the bee keepers for keeping their boxes on government land in the state.