Diesel rate hike to put Rs 500 cr burden on Punjab farm sector

The highest ever increase of Rs 5 in diesel rate is set to raise input cost of farmers as it will cause an additional burden of over Rs 500 crore on Punjabs agriculture sector,experts said on Friday.

There will be an additional burden of more than Rs 500 crore on Punjabs farmers due to increase in diesel rate, Punjab Agricultural University Head (Department of Economics) M S Sidhu said,when asked what will be the impact of fuel hike on the states agriculture sector.

Every increase of Re 1 per litre in diesel puts burden of Rs 100 crore on farmers in the shape of additional input cost, he said.

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The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs,headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,last evening decided to raise diesel prices by Rs 5 per litre,excluding VAT (value-added tax).

Diesel is massively used in farm sector of country;s food bowl as farmers run tractors,combines and even sizeable number of submersible pumps on generators for carrying out farming activities.

Punjab has 4.34 lakh tractors for agriculture operations,14,000 combines and 2.40 lakh diesel run tubewells.

Apart from that diesel consumption also goes up in the state in view of severe power shortage during summer season. The sale of diesel zoomed in Punjab by 22 per cent in the month of June and July this year.

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Diesel rate hike to put Rs 500 cr burden on Punjab farm sector

The highest ever increase of Rs 5 in diesel rate is set to raise input cost of farmers as it will cause an additional burden of over Rs 500 crore on Punjabs agriculture sector,experts said on Friday.

Diesel rate hike to put Rs 500 cr burden on Punjab farm sector

The highest ever increase of Rs 5 in diesel rate is set to raise input cost of farmers as it will cause an additional burden of over Rs 500 crore on Punjabs agriculture sector,experts said on Friday.