Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on the first day of the Parliament winter session, presented two bills in Lok Sabha on Monday. Both the bills introduced by the Union Finance Minister aimed at levying a cess on tobacco products and their manufacturing.
Finance Minister Sitharaman introduced the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and National Security Cess Bill, 2025, in Lok Sabha soon after the Parliament convened after a brief adjournment till noon, reported ANI.
Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It will augment the resources for meeting 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, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto,” as quoted by news agency ANI.
On the contrary, Sougata Roy, AITC MP, opposed the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, stating that the bill does not mention the dangers of tobacco on packets, and the government only seeks to attract excise duty from such products.
AITC MP Sougata Roy also opposed the introduction of the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill, 2025. He further noted that he is against imposing any cess that would not be shared with states, termed the bill ambiguous, and added it lacked information about the dangers of tobacco products.
DM Kathir Anand, DMK MP, objected to the Health Security and National Security Cess Bill, 2025, noting that the bill appears technically sound but imposes a severe financial burden on the ordinary citizens of India.
The government has listed a total of 13 bills for consideration during the winter session, which started on December 1. However, many of the bills that have been listed were not examined by the Standing Committee.
The other legislative proposals likely to be taken up this winter session include the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025; the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2025; the National Highways (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Atomic Energy Bill, 2025; the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Securities Markets Code Bill (SMC), 2025; the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2025.
As per the schedule, the winter session of Parliament will continue till December 19, 2025.
(With inputs from ANI)