Parliament’s Winter Session began with protests in Lok Sabha as the government introduced major GST, excise and health-security cess bills.
Saloni Kumari | Dec 2, 2025 |
Winter Session of Parliament Begins Today, Lok Sabha Introduces Major GST, Excise and Health Security Bills
Today, on December 01, 2025, the Parliament of india has begun its winter session. The session will include a total of 15 sittings spread over a period of 19 days.
The Lok Sabha had been adjourned till 2:00 PM today because the opposition parties created a loud protest over several issues, including the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists.
After the first adjournment, the Lok Sabha again gathered at 2:00 PM; however, the Lok Sabha members again started sloganeering.
In today’s sitting, Lok Sabha introduced three bills named the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill 2025, the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill 2025 and the Health Security se National Security Cess Bill 2025.
1. Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill 2025
The first, the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, was introduced to amend the Manipur Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The finance ministry of india has made this move to align Manipur’s GST regulation with the Centre’s new GST slabs. It aims to carry out more decisions made by the GST Council. One major plan is to merge the current GST rate slabs into just two main rates, i.e., 5% and 18%. Previously, the Manipur GST (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was already approved by the Lok Sabha in August 2025, to replace an earlier ordinance.
The 56th GST Council meeting, held on September 3 and 4, 2025, had already overhauled rates of GST on around 375 items. Earlier, in the overall nation, there were slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent; now all of them have been merged into 2 slabs of 5 and 18 per cent. One special slab of 40% for sin goods.
2. Central Excise (Amendment) Bill
The second, the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, has been introduced to impose excise duty on tobacco and its related products (sin goods). The aim of this change is to revise tariff rates under Section IV of the Fourth Schedule of the Central Excise Act, 1944. The finance ministry has also introduced a new cess on the manufacturing of paan masala and any other items as notified by the central government.
The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill will replace the GST compensation cess, which is presently imposed on tobacco and all its related goods, such as cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, hookahs, zarda, and scented tobacco.
Presently, all sin goods, including tobacco and paan masala, attract 28% GST, along with compensation cess at distinct rates. When this compensation cess is ended, GST plus Excise Duty will be imposed on tobacco and related goods; on the other hand, GST plus ‘Health Security se National Security Cess’ will be imposed on paan masala.
3. Health Security se National Security Cess Bill 2025
The Health Security se National Security Cess Bill 2025 has been introduced with an aim to impose a cess on the production of some specified goods like paan masala. The government wants to add a new tax called the Health and National Security Cess. The money collected from this tax will be used for two things: one, to improve public health services and second, to reinforce national security.
When GST was introduced on July 1, 2017, the government introduced a “compensation cess” for 5 years (till June 30, 2022) to help States recover the money they lost because of GST. Later, this cess was extended for 4 more years (till March 31, 2026). The money collected now is being used to repay the loans the Central Government had taken to compensate States during the COVID-19 period.
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