Punjab Himachal Entry Tax Row: Ropar To Tax HP Vehicles Entering Punjab
Ropar to Tax HP vehicles: Rupnagar Zila Parishad okays infra toll tax on Himachal vehicles, reviving Punjab’s year-long entry tax standoff — from Nangal’s stalled resolution to the Nihang “Khalsa tax” episode.
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, July 21
Ropar to Tax HP vehicles: In response to Himachal Pradesh entry tax, the Rupnagar Zila Parishad has passed a resolution to impose an “infrastructure toll tax” on vehicles entering Punjab from Himachal Pradesh, reviving a demand that has simmered along the border for over a year without resolution from the state government.
AAP MLA Dinesh Chadha, who moved the resolution and sits on the Parishad, said the levy is meant to fund the upkeep of rural roads in Rupnagar district that adjoin Himachal Pradesh and see heavy commercial traffic from the hill state’s industrial belt.
Chadha said the Zila Parishad is empowered under Section 189 of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act to impose such taxes and fees, and that the funds raised would go toward improving and maintaining rural road infrastructure damaged by vehicles from Himachal Pradesh. The proposal will now be forwarded to the state government for approval under provisions of the Act.
A demand with a paper trail
Ropar to Tax HP vehicles: Monday’s resolution is not the first of its kind. In a similar move, the Nangal Municipal Council had unanimously passed a resolution proposing a reciprocal entry tax on Himachal-registered vehicles, but that proposal has remained pending with the Punjab government and has not received approval. Former Nangal councillor Paramjit Singh Pamma, who had piloted that resolution, welcomed the Zila Parishad’s move.
Chadha himself has been the most consistent face of this campaign. Back in March, he had asked Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema in the Punjab Assembly whether the state planned to mirror Himachal’s entry-tax model, to which Cheema said the government would study the option carefully, possibly routing it through local bodies near the border — while noting that under the “One Nation, One Tax” principle, no state can ordinarily impose a tax on another state.
READ ALSO: Nihang Sikhs Impose ‘Khalsa Tax’ on Himachal Vehicles in Punjab — Here’s Why
Legal notice to HP
Ropar to Tax HP vehicles: In April, Chadha escalated the fight to the legal arena. He served a legal notice on the Himachal Pradesh government seeking the dismantling of toll barriers operating under the Himachal Pradesh Tolls Act, 1975, and the state’s 2026-27 toll policy, arguing that National Highways fall under central jurisdiction and citing a Madras High Court ruling — upheld by the Supreme Court in March 2026 — that only the Centre can levy tolls on national highways.
The notice also alleged discriminatory treatment, since Himachal-registered vehicles are exempted while those from other states, including Punjab, are charged — a claim Chadha framed as a violation of Article 14.
Khalsa tax: The Nihang intervention
The dispute took an unusual turn in early June when Nihang Singhs stepped into the standoff directly. A group of Nihang Sikhs set up a symbolic “Khalsa tax” checkpoint near the Gara Mora NHAI toll plaza on the Kiratpur Sahib-Manali highway, collecting voluntary contributions from Himachal-registered vehicles for about an hour as a protest against the entry levy. Nihang leader Achar Singh said the action was forced by both governments’ failure to address grievances, and warned of further steps if a ten-day ultimatum was not met.
The episode triggered a political storm, with opposition leaders accusing the state government of letting the dispute fester unresolved, even as AAP leaders largely avoided direct criticism of either side.
Ground-level frustration had already been building for months. The dispute had reignited earlier this year after Himachal revised entry tax rates under the 1975 Tolls Act; though some proposed hikes for private vehicles were later rolled back, the core demand for a complete withdrawal of the tax has gone unmet, and blockades at border crossings on 1 June caused hours of traffic chaos. Transporters plying the Chandigarh-Manali route have described the levy as an added strain on frequent cross-border travel for work.
READ ALSO: Nihang Sikhs Impose ‘Khalsa Tax’ on Himachal Vehicles in Punjab — Here’s Why
Ropar to Tax HP vehicles: The road ahead
With a formal Zila Parishad resolution now headed to the state government, the reciprocal-tax demand has moved from MLA-level advocacy and municipal-level symbolism to a more institutional push — though its fate depends on state approval that the near-identical Nangal resolution has been awaiting for well over a year.
The move also comes against the backdrop of Chadha’s pending legal notice, raising the question of whether Punjab intends to fight this on the tax-reciprocity track, the constitutional/jurisdictional track, or both simultaneously.
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