The Rajasthan government has announced a 20% surcharge on taxes levied on liquor, which reports say could be spent for cow protection. The surcharge came into effect from Saturday.
The 20% surcharge will be levied on the sale of foreign liquor, Indian-made foreign liquor, country liquor and beer sold by registered dealers, the state’s finance department said in a notification on Friday.
The move comes after the Centre cut around 90% of the grants for cows in Rajasthan from its disaster relief fund, unidentified officials told The Times of India. The notification does not mention what the surcharge will be spent on.
In April 2017, the state government had imposed a 10% cow cess as surcharge on stamp duty for protection and propagation of cows. The government is considering doubling this as well as it is inadequate, the Hindustan Times had reported earlier this month.
In one year, the government generated around Rs 235 crore in revenue from the cow surcharge levied on stamp duty. Rajasthan has 2,562 registered cow shelters and 9.6 lakh cattle, which require Rs 490 crore as grant for six months, an unidentified official told the Hindustan Times.
Rajasthan is the only state in the country that has a ministry dedicated to cows.
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