Summary:
This is a cumulative effect of a price hike, supply crunch in beer as a whole, and the non-availability of mild beer brands.
"The new Gau Raksha cess is Rs 5 per bottle of beer.
It is quite severe considering beer is 95 per cent water," he added.
In India, beer at a bar costs three-and-a-half times more.
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The five per cent ‘cow protection’ cess imposed by the Yogi Adityanath government on alcohol and the ongoing Lok Sabha elections have resulted in unintended consequence –shortage of popular brands of beer in the market.
Uttar Pradesh being the biggest market of beer is fast running out of stock of the beverage.
The state government in January had announced to impose 5 per cent cess on alcohol to fund the cow protection programme.
Every time there is a change in taxation, the retail price changes and so does the label on the product.
Every brand has to get an approval for these changes from the state’s excise department before releasing the product into the market.
"Every April, new policy comes into force.
Every time you get into it, there is a delay of about a month because they re-register all the labels.
The bureaucratic procedure is long and cumbersome as the files are pushed at different levels.