In New Delhi on 30 November, the government announced that the Central Excise Amendment Bill, 2025 and the Health Security National Security Cess Bill, 2025, will be part of the 13 new measures slated for the Parliament’s Winter Session beginning Monday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present these two bills in the Lok Sabha, aiming to swap the GST‑based tobacco and pan‑masala compensation cess for an excise levy so that the steep tax on such “sin goods” remains at the current rate. The session will also cover the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025‑26, where discussion and voting are scheduled.
The Health Security National Security Cess Bill, 2025, is designed to replace the existing compensation cess on pan‑masala. It seeks to “augment the resources for meeting Security expenditure on national security and for public health, and levy a cess for the said purposes on the machines installed or other processes undertaken by which specified goods are manufactured or produced.” At present, a 28 % GST applies to tobacco and pan‑masala, supplemented by a varying compensation cess. This cess was extended until 31 March 2026, with proceeds earmarked to pay off the loan the centre took to offset state losses during the Covid period. The GST Council met on 3 September 2025 and decided to keep the compensation cess in place until those loans are fully repaid, after which the cess will gradually be withdrawn.
Compensation cess on other luxury items was discontinued on 22 September following GST rationalisation, which reduced the structure to two slabs of 5 % and 18 %. Luxury goods and sugary drinks such as Pepsi and Coke are now taxed at a flat 40 %.
Other bills scheduled for introduction this session include the National Highways (Amendment) Bill, the Atomic Energy Bill, the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill and the Higher Education Commission of India Bill‑2025.
— sps/pgh
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