Lok Sabha passes Bill to give immediate effect to customs, excise duty proposals in Budget

Sitharaman said the bill incorporates the existing provisions of the 1931 Bill.

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a Bill that seeks to give immediate effect to the changes in customs and excise duties announced in the Budget. The House after a brief discussion on the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill 2023, passed the Bill by voice vote.

Jayant Sinha (BJP) and B V Satyavathi (YSRCP) participated in the brief discussion on the Bill which is aimed at curbing speculative activities following changes in customs and excise duties in the Budget. Moving the Bill for passage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill, 2023 seeks to obtain the authority from Parliament to provisionally levy and collect the newly imposed or increased duties of customs and excise for 75 days.

This Bill proposes to replace the erstwhile Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931 with a minor change that is technical in nature. The provisions of the Bill empower collection provisionally, during the period between the introduction and enactment of the Bill the increased customs or central excise duty where such duty rate is increased beyond the statutory rate approved by Parliament or where such duty is newly imposed, she said. While the changes in rates of income and corporate taxes, incorporated in the Budget announced on February 1, are effective from April 1 or a notified date, most of the changes in customs and excise duty rates become effective from midnight.

The Bill provides for the "immediate effect for a limited period" of provisions in Bills relating to the imposition or increase of duties of customs or excise. Sitharaman said the bill incorporates the existing provisions of the 1931 Bill. "By invoking this particular Act, we are able to temporarily ensure, till the time the Finance Bill gets passed, no speculative activities are happening," she had said while introducing the Bill in Lok Sabha last week.