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The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on the fourth day of the winter session, with the House scheduled to reconvene on December 5 at 11:00 AM. The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned shortly after.

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Central Excise Bill Passed in Rajya Sabha

Today, the Rajya Sabha passed the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025. A day earlier, the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha. The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, seeks to revise excise duties on tobacco and related products after the expiry of the GST compensation cess.

Congress Opposes Bill

Meanwhile, opposing the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, accused the Central Government of burdening citizens through repeated financial impositions, claiming that the Modi-led administration has consistently found "excuses" over the past 11 years to extract money from the public and expand the government treasury.

Speaking during a discussion in the Rajya Sabha, Tiwari alleged that the Centre was presenting its decisions as acts of goodwill. At the same time, in his view, the impact on the public remained adverse. "From the past 11 years, when the Modi government came to power, PM Modi has kept finding some excuse or another to take money out of the public's pocket and fill it in the government treasury," he said. He further added, "I am afraid that the Bill intends that the entire money will not go to the state government and the foreign countries...It will only go to the Central government."

Raising concerns about the government's approach to increasing excise duty on tobacco products, Tiwari said the administration had remained silent on the issues faced by those dependent on tobacco cultivation. He argued that imposing excise duty on tobacco and related products was not lowering prices but instead pushing them higher. "Imposing excise duty on tobacco and tobacco-related products is not decreasing the price; the price is increasing by imposing it," he noted.

New Cess Bill Introduced in Lok Sabha

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved The Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025 in Lok Sabha for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, she said "I rise to move that the bill to augment the resources for meeting expenditure on national security and for public health and to levy assess for the said purposes on the machines installed or other processes undertaken by which specified goods are manufactured or produced and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."

Finance Minister Explains Rationale

Elaborating on the rationale behind the bill, Sitharaman further added, "A cess is being imposed because the GST system taxes consumption, and even today pan masala is taxed under GST at 28 per cent plus compensation cess. Since the compensation cess is going to end, that portion will shift into a 40 per cent cess. However, many types of pan masala still do not fall under the tax net because GST is applied on the basis of consumption. Under GST, there is no tax based on production capacity or output. That is why tobacco is taxed under GST and was also brought under excise duty recently."

"Excise taxes production. But pan masala cannot be taxed on production because it is not classified as an excisable product. So, while cigarettes were brought under excise duty and ideally pan masala should have been included too, it cannot be added because it is not in the excise category. Therefore, cigarettes now face excise duty, as they should, with more than 40% tax so they are not cheaply available, but pan masala cannot be taxed this way. Hence, through the new law, the government is imposing a production-based tax in the form of a cess," the Finance Minister said.

The Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025 was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 1, 2025 (ANI)