Subsidy hike of ₹20 per cow adds fiscal burden of ₹230 crore on Maharashtra exchequer

Maharashtra's Cabinet raised cow subsidy for gaushalas to ₹50, impacting state finances amid debt concerns, ahead of elections

Mumbai: Four days after the Maharashtra government announced a daily subsidy of ₹50 per cow in gaushalas (cow sheds) across the state, it appears the state Cabinet had increased the proposed sum by ₹20 per animal. While the Department of Animal Husbandry had proposed ₹30 per cow, per day, at par with other states in the country, the Cabinet took a last-minute decision to raise this to ₹50 per animal.

The decision to provide financial assistance to 828 goshalas, which tend to over 1.23 lakh cows and other bovines, places an annual burden of ₹230 crore on the cash-strapped state government. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files (Reuters file)

The decision to provide financial assistance to 828 goshalas, which tend to over 1.23 lakh cows and other bovines, places an annual burden of ₹230 crore on the cash-strapped state government, already reeling under an estimated debt burden of ₹7.82 lakh crore. A subsidy of ₹30 per cow would have entailed an annual subsidy of ₹135 crore, a saving of ₹95 crore. The subsidy is clearly a part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance’s attempt to play up the Hindutva card ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. It also granted ‘Rajyamata-Gomata’ status to cows, to reinforce the spiritual and cultural significance of the animal in Indian society.

The Department of Animal Husbandry had made its recommendation on the subsidy after studying similar schemes in states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva agenda is widely appreciated. The governments of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have allocated ₹30 per bovine, per day, while Madhya Pradesh recently increased the sum to ₹40. Himachal Pradesh provides monthly assistance of ₹700 per bovine to its goshalas.

According to a senior bureaucrat, the department had prepared its proposal after requests from at least 40 MLAs and the goshalas. “When the proposal was moved, animal husbandry minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil changed the sum to ₹50 per cow, from the ₹30 proposed by the department.”

The proposal had said that the ban on slaughtering cows and bovines in March 2015 had increased the number of unproductive cattle. It had stated, “They are either abandoned by farmers or sent to goshalas. Since they are unproductive, maintaining them becomes very difficult for the cow sheds as the expenditure on their maintenance is ₹80 per cattle per day. In the backdrop of the poor productivity of the indigenous species of cows, making their maintenance unviable, the financial assistance to the goshalas is the need of the hour and should be extended the assistance of ₹30 per cattle per day.”

The proposal was opposed by the state Finance and Planning Departments, which pointed to the state’s poor financial health. The senior bureaucrat revealed, “In their objections, the departments had pointed out that the state government has already implemented a number of schemes for goshalas. Under these schemes, 32 goshalas had been given ₹1 crore as a one-time grant since 2017, and another 152 goshalas were provided ₹15-25 lakh in May 2023. In addition, subsidies are provided for the effective marketing of products such as milk, dung cakes and dung-based fertilisers.” He said the government had also been reminded about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to the states in December 2023, to avoid “non-merit subsidies and freebies”.