The Punjab green tractor scheme

The Punjab Government's green tractor scheme has ostensibly hit a snag. Green tractor scheme was, originally, the brainchild of the Pakistan Peoples Party and was considered by many as a counter scheme to Mian Nawaz Sharif's yellow cabs.
Both schemes consisted of the element of subsidisation to support the consumer/beneficiary while suppliers were queuing up to get themselves registered in an effort to guarantee their sales; and, according to some reports, paying huge commissions as an incentive. Be that as it may there is evidence to suggest that such schemes paid significant political dividends which may explain their resurrection.
The green tractor scheme of the Punjab government was announced on 16 June 2008 and envisaged allocation of one billion rupees to subsidise 10,000 tractors that were targeted to be allocated to farmers holding less than 12.5 acres of land. Allocations were to be made through a computer draw to guarantee that there would be no nepotism.
The Punjab Finance Minister at the time claimed that this would be a giant leap for farm mechanisation that had eluded the country for over 60 years. Sceptics at the time had marvelled at the adequacy of mechanising our entire out-dated farm sector by subsidising only 10,000 tractors. More than seven months after the announcement of the green tractor scheme the giant leap has, at best, been downgraded to less than a shuffle.
The balloting took place as planned and the lucky 10,000 farmers deposited the agreed payment for the tractors with the manufacturers. The jury is still out with respect to whether poor subsistence farmers, owning less than 12.5 acres, could have even afforded the price of the subsidised tractors. There was no element of a co-operative with the capacity to buy a tractor for a number of subsistence farmers.
Be that as it may around 4,000 tractors have been supplied to the farmers but supply of the remaining 6,000 have been suspended because the government's subsidisation element has not been forthcoming. According to sources the government has requested the manufacturers to reduce the price of the tractors; and one would assume that the government is indirectly requesting the manufacturers to pay part of the subsidies that it had committed to pay, and the manufacturers have categorically refused to do so.
The Punjab government must accept the obvious fact: that the tractor manufacturers are in the business of making profits and not in extending subsidies. It is, therefore, imperative that the provincial government extend the subsidy for the price agreed because there are around 6,000 farmers who have already deposited their share of the tractor price and are not getting the product.