In order to promote bee keeping and farm diversification, 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.

Having conceded to the demand of progressive honey producers, he asked the department concerned to implement this decision at the earliest so as to facilitate bee keeping besides providing fillip to honey production in the state, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said.

Badal also announced that 40 per cent subsidy already given to the beekeepers on 50 boxes along with bee would now be available on 100 such boxes.

In another decision, the CM asked the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, to purchase four machines for extracting honey from bees on trial basis.

He also asked the university to recruit experts for bee keeping so as to impart quality training to the farmers, encouraging them to adopt this remunerative profession in a big way.