Finance Ministry Proposes New Central Excise Law, Seeks Public Feedback

New Delhi, Jun 5 (KNN) The Union Finance Ministry on Tuesday announced its intention to replace the eight-decade-old Central Excise Act with a new central excise law.

The ministry has released a draft Central Excise Bill, 2024 and is seeking public comments on the proposed legislation until June 26th as part of a pre-legislative consultative process.

After the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, only a few products like crude oil, petrol, diesel, natural gas, and aviation turbine fuel remain under the purview of the Central Excise Act.

However, these products yield substantial tax revenues for both the Union government, which collected over Rs 3 trillion from central excise duties in the fiscal year 2023-24, and state governments, which levy value-added tax (VAT) on these items instead of state GST.

According to the Finance Ministry, the draft Bill aims to enact a comprehensive, modern central excise law that emphasises promoting ease of doing business while repealing outdated and redundant provisions.

The proposed legislation comprises twelve chapters, 114 sections, and two schedules.

Although the industry has advocated for including crude oil and petroleum products under the GST regime, a lack of consensus among states, which are reluctant to relinquish their taxation powers over these items in favour of the GST Council, has hindered such a move.

Unlike the excise law, GST avoids anomalies like 'tax on tax' by levying the tax at each successive stage of the supply chain only on the value added at that stage, thereby reducing the cost of doing business and the overall tax burden on the end consumer.

(KNN Bureau)