Residents living along Punjab’s State boundary with Himachal Pradesh, including traders, truck operators and taxi drivers, have united under the banner of the ‘Sangarsh Morcha’ to oppose Himachal Pradesh’s vehicle entry tax. A faction of Nihang Sikhs has also renewed its threat to revive its agitation against the levy, which they say continues to affect daily life in the region.

The Himachal Pradesh government, under the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Tolls Act, 1975, collects a tax on vehicles from other States entering Himachal Pradesh. Toll barriers have been set up at various locations, including Parwanoo, Gara-Maura, Mehatpur, Kala Amb, Kandwal and Baddi, along the Punjab and Haryana borders. The latest vehicle entry tax ranges from ₹100 to ₹900, depending on the category of vehicle.

Opposing the vehicle entry tax, members of the Sangharsh Morcha have been holding intermittent demonstrations over the past few months near Gara-Maura, twin villages on the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border where a toll barrier is situated on the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali National Highway, demanding a complete rollback of the levy on out-of-State vehicles entering Himachal Pradesh. The agitation has drawn the support of Nihangs (Sikh warriors), who, as part of a symbolic protest earlier this month, collected what they termed ‘Khalsa tax’ from Himachal Pradesh-registered vehicles entering Punjab through the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway. The collection was, however, voluntary and not coercive.

For Pradeep Singh Sekhpuria, a taxi operator from Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab’s Rupnagar district, taking his passenger cab across the State boundary into Himachal Pradesh has become economically unviable. Citing the example of a trip from Kiratpur Sahib to Swarghat in Himachal Pradesh, a distance of barely 25 kilometres, he said, “The vehicle entry tax keeps rising year after year. It has made it very difficult for us to work freely. While the road tax and NHAI toll apply universally, it is the ₹100 entry charge, valid for only 24 hours, singled out for out-of-State vehicles, which hurts the most. The taxi operator having a Himachal-registered cab doesn’t have to pay the entry tax, allowing them to offer lower fares, resulting in Punjab-based operators like me struggling to stay competitive in their own backyard. We want it rolled back completely.”

Vir Singh, a resident of Nurpur Bedi and a local leader of the Kirti Kisan Morcha in Rupnagar district, said: “Most of our relatives stay in the adjoining Bilaspur district of Himachal. I often travel to neighbouring villages of the hill State in my private car, at times three to four times a week, and every fresh day I have to pay the entry toll. If someone is visiting Himachal once or twice in a year, then it is not a big issue for them to pay entry tax, but for people like me, the entry tax makes a deep hole in the pocket.”

As the entry tax continues to disrupt their daily routine, locals, including traders, taxi and truck operators, farmers and others, have formed the ‘Sangharsh Committee’ to raise their voice against what they term an unjustified tax.

“We had been intermittently staging protests for the past few months near the entry toll barrier situated at Gara-Maura villages on the Punjab-Himachal inter-State boundary on the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway. People living along the border depend on cross-State movement for their daily livelihoods. Traders, transporters, farmers and ordinary citizens are all being hurt by this tax. We want it withdrawn. Locals in border districts, not just in Punjab but Haryana as well, are all affected by Himachal’s entry tax,” Gaurav Rana, convener of the committee, told The Hindu.

“We will again re-launch our agitation in the next few days. We are planning to hold a meeting of members in the first week of July, in which the next course of action will be decided if the demand is not met,” he said.

The agitation has also drawn the support of Nihangs, who have declared that they will resume their symbolic protest of voluntarily collecting ‘Khalsa tax’ from Himachal Pradesh-registered vehicles entering Punjab through the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway.

“We had a meeting with the local administration here in Punjab. We want the Punjab government to immediately take steps to get Himachal’s entry tax removed from the border districts or else a reciprocal tax should be imposed on vehicles from Himachal Pradesh by Punjab. If the demand is not fulfilled, we will resume our ‘Khalsa’ tax protest in the days to come. We are coordinating with the ‘Sangharsh Morcha’ and will hold a meeting with them on the issue soon,” said Nihang leader Achhar Singh.

Uttansh Monga, an advocate who has filed a petition in the Himachal Pradesh High Court on the issue, said, “There is no competence of a State to levy tolls on national highways, which fall within the exclusive domain of the Union. This matter regarding the levy of toll by a State on national highways raises serious questions regarding the violation of Part XI of the Constitution of India.”

Notably, Punjab Education Minister Harjot Bains has repeatedly termed Himachal Pradesh’s entry tax as “unconstitutional, discriminatory and a direct assault on the spirit of cooperative federalism and free trade in India”, and has demanded that it be withdrawn.

In April this year, the Himachal Pradesh government decided to provide concessional passes to people living within a radius of five kilometres from the entry toll barriers. Mr. Monga, however, termed the concessional pass order as “nothing more than an optic”, saying, “It is restricted to 5 km travel distance and not radius, which significantly limits its applicability and excludes the majority of local residents. The procedure prescribed to avail such a concession is also cumbersome. The so-called ‘relief’ is in reality ineffective, leaving the financial burden on the public substantially unchanged.”