The Uttar Pradesh government on January 1, 2019, has cleared a plan to levy cow welfare cess to help generate funds to protect stray cows by building cow shelters. The new cess will be applicable on excise items, road toll plazas and Mandi Parishads.
The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While 0.5% cess will be applicable on excise items which may also include alcohol, the same amount of cess will be collected from toll plazas. The Mandi Parishads that was already contributing 1% cess for gau rakhsha, will now contribute an additional 1% to the government’s treasury.
A government spokesperson told PTI that the government has also cleared a proposal to set up and run temporary ‘gauvansh ashray asthals’ under the urban and rural civic bodies. All stray cattle will be kept in these ‘gauvansh ashray asthals’.
“Temporary cow sheds will be opened in all villages, panchayats, municipalities, nagar panchayats and municipal corporations. In every district, both urban and rural areas, a cowshed with capacity of minimum 1,000 animals will be built and for this, a total of 2% cow welfare cess will be imposed on excise, mandi parishad, profitable corporations and others,” the spokesperson said.
