“Products like tobacco and automobiles currently attracting cess over and above 28% GST cannot have GST ‘compensation’ cess after that. The GST Council will decide what is to be done after the compensation cess is removed… It can continue in some other form, no doubt,” the person added. “The term GST ‘compensation’ cess will be a misnomer in the future. Queries sent to the GST Council and the spokesperson for the finance ministry remained unanswered at the time of publishing. In the current fiscal year, the Centre is expected to collect ₹1.45 trillion in compensation cess, up 15% from the year before, as per interim budget estimates.

Source: Mint February 14, 2024 11:34 UTC