New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on the second day of the winter session, will put forward the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha. The Union Minister is set to move the bill to raise the excise duties and cess on tobacco products.
After GST was implemented in 2017, the Centre had reduced excise duty on tobacco so that compensation cess could be added without significantly raising overall taxes. Now, since the GST compensation cess will end once the government repays the loans taken under it, the bill aims to revise the excise rates accordingly.
Finance minister Sitharaman had tabled the bill in the Lok Sabha amidst continued Opposition demanding a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the ECI.
In the meantime, tensions flared in the Upper House on the second day of the 2025 Winter Session of Parliament, as opposition members demanded urgent discussion over the ongoing electoral roll revision drive, triggering procedural clashes and widespread uproar. The conflict escalated following a notice by Tiruchi Siva under Rajya Sabha's Rule 267.
Moreover, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva called for a suspension of normal business to debate the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, warning that the process may disenfranchise citizens and undermine the principle of universal adult franchise. He urged that critical rules be suspended so that the House could address what he termed an issue of “urgent importance”.
The Chair, however, referred to procedural requirements to reject all 21 notices invoking Rule 267 on the ground that they were wrongly framed, hence inadmissible. This rejection was vehemently opposed by the Opposition members as a denial of democratic accountability. The Chair maintained that matters pending before courts could not be entertained under the rule.
Members from opposition benches pressed that the electoral integrity implications of the SIR exercise must not be overlooked. The opposition is alleged to continue the protest against the ongoing SIR of the electoral roll.
The second day thus laid bare deep divisions over electoral reforms and democratic safeguards, as the ruling side pushed forward statutory business, and the opposition demanded urgent public debate, underlining a growing tension between procedural norms and democratic urgency.