UP Faces Paucity of Beer

Uttar Pradesh is running short of beer, possibly due to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections DUE TO ON GOING Lok Sabha elections and delay in approval of new labels after state’s new excise policy.

In January of this year, Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath imposed a 0.5 percent cess on alcohol to bolster funding for the state’s cow protection programme. The gau raksha (cow protection) tax amounts to Rs. 5 per bottle of beer.

The change in taxation leads to change in retail price and labeling of products. Every brand needs to get an approval for these changes from the excise department before releasing the product into the market. Same thing happened in UP after Yogi’s taxation initiative.

Now as the officials from the excise department became busy with election duties, the approvals for labels for alcoholic beverage products got delayed. This has eventually led to the supply crunch of beers. The supply shortage of mild beers in particular, is quite acute in the state.