Centre pegs 9.4% growth in FY26 cess, surcharge collections at ₹5.91 lakh crore
As per data shared by the government in the Rajya Sabha, the Centre has budgeted to collect about ₹4.18 lakh crore from cess and ₹1.72 lakh crore from surcharge in FY26. This is higher than FY25 cess and surcharge collection of ₹3.87 lakh crore and ₹1.53 lakh crore, respectively.
Read:Parliament Monsoon session Day 7 LIVE
In a written reply to a question in the House, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said cess and surcharge are levied by the central government for the purposes of the Union under Article 271 of the Constitution.
"The proceeds of such surcharge and cess go towards meeting certain specific needs such as financing of Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The benefits of such expenditure also percolate to States," he said.
Replying to a separate question in the House, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government collected ₹83,071 crore in 2024-25 by levying health and education cess, while it spent ₹87,199 crore from the kitty.
Giving details of the amount of health and education cess collected from income tax payers in addition to income tax during the last three years, Ms. Sitharaman said in 2023-24 and 2022-23 the government collected ₹69,891 crore and ₹60,616 crore, respectively from the cess.
During FY24 and FY23, spendings from health and education cess kitty stood at about ₹80,010 crore and ₹70,589 crore, respectively.
Gross tax revenue collected by the Centre forms part of the divisible pool and distributed between the Centre and states. Collection from surcharges and cess do not form part of the divisible pool and are hence not shared with States.
Currently, 8 different cesses are in operation. These are agriculture infrastructure, development cess, cess on crude oil, cess on exports, GST compensation cess, health and education cess, national calamity contingent duty and infrastructure cess.
Surcharges are levied on corporate tax, income tax, and social welfare surcharge under Customs.
States, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, have been making a case for including cess collection in the divisible pool. Currently, the Centre devolves 41% of the taxes collected to States.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
5 minutes ago
- India Today
Parliament Monsoon Session Live Updates: Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm amid Opposition uproar
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 p.m. after fresh protests by Opposition members, who trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans. The disruption came shortly after proceedings resumed following an hour-long adjournment. Amid the uproar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The officiating chair adjourned the House as protests continued. After Rajya Sabha proceedings began at 11 a.m., Deputy Chairman Harivansh declined to admit members' notices, citing procedural issues. He urged the Opposition to maintain order and allow Question Hour to proceed. As Opposition members continued to protest and raise slogans, the House was adjourned till 2 p.m. Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned within minutes of commencement on Thursday as opposition MPs raised slogans and protested during Question Hour. Speaker Om Birla announced the start of the session but quickly adjourned the House till 12 p.m. amid continued disruptions from the Opposition benches. For the first time in 14 months, INDIA bloc parties will come together outside Parliament on Thursday at a dinner meeting hosted by Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi at his Delhi home. The meeting comes as the Opposition jointly rallies against the Centre's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which they allege is politically motivated. Ahead of the Monsoon session, Congress had convened a virtual meeting of floor leaders, and over the past two weeks, Rahul Gandhi and Rajya Sabha LoP Mallikarjun Kharge have held several discussions with allies to improve floor coordination. The dinner meet will be followed by a joint protest march to the Election Commission's office in Delhi on Friday.
Indian Express
31 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Justice Varma cash row: Supreme Court dismisses judge's plea challenging in-house probe
The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma's petition challenging the in-house inquiry against him over the alleged discovery of unaccounted cash at his official residence in New Delhi during a fire in March this year. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih, which heard Justice Yashwant Varma's petition, said the writ petition should not have been entertained amid his conduct, which did not inspire confidence, and framed a few other questions and answered them regarding the constitutional issues raised by him. On the question whether the procedure has legal sanction, the bench answered this in the affirmative. 'We have said that the procedure does have legal sanction,' Justice Datta said, reading out the operative parts of the judgment. The bench held that the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, and the committee set up by him 'have scrupulously followed the procedure except one that is the uploading of the video footage and the photographs' of the alleged burnt cash. The bench said, 'We have said that it was not required under the procedure to do so, but having said so, we have also held that nothing turns on it because at the opportune moment you did not question it, and there is also no relief claimed in the writ petition insofar as uploading is concerned.' On the procedure requiring CJI to forward the report of the committee to the President and the Prime Minister, the SC held that 'it is not unconstitutional.' The bench also went into the question whether an inquiry and the consequent report in terms of the procedure, which could be unfavourable to the judge under probe, is a parallel and extra-constitutional mechanism. 'We have also held that it is not a parallel and extra-constitutional mechanism,' said the bench. On whether paragraph 5b of the procedure falls foul of Article 125 read with Article 217 and 218 of the Constitution or abrogates any fundamental right of a judge of a high court, the bench said, 'The answer is in the negative.' Justice Varma, who was a judge of the Delhi HC, is facing an impeachment motion following a probe into allegations of cash being found at his official residence. He moved the Supreme Court on July 18, challenging the in-house inquiry mechanism, which indicted him, calling it a 'parallel, extra-constitutional mechanism'.
New Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Vexed Delhi CM Rekha Gupta says get rid of phansi-ghar signage
NEW DELHI: The 'phansi-ghar' that is not in the Delhi Assembly caused acrimonious exchanges and the marshalling out of former CM Atishi from the House on Wednesday, even as Chief Minister Rekha Gupta requested the Speaker to remove the false signage at the heart of the ruckus and blamed AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal for creating t h e misleading narrative. LoP Atishi and other AAP MLAs were marshalled out of the Assembly following a heated exchange with BJP members over the authenticity of a so-called British-era 'phansi-ghar' (execution room) on the House premises. Speaker Vijender Gupta said the structure, renovated and inaugurated in 2022 by then CM Arvind Kejriwal, was a 'tiffin room' and not a site of colonial executions. Minister Kapil Mishra accused the AAP government of 'tampering with history' by projecting a false narrative. 'They spent crores turning a tiffin room into a fake execution site,' he said. AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha, however, defended the room's historical significance, arguing that many such execution sites were never officially recorded. 'Historians have differing views on such places. In the 1912 map of this building, that is the only double-storey structure consistent with a hanging chamber,' he said. As the altercation between the treasury and opposition benches escalated, the Speaker ordered Atishi and other AAP MLAs to be removed from the House. The Speaker said 'phansi-ghar' was a tiffin room and there was a misconception that it was used to hang freedom fighters during British rule. The CM urged the Speaker to immediately remove the misleading signage referencing the 'phansi-ghar' from the Assembly premises emphasising that this rectification is especially critical ahead of the All India Speakers' Conference scheduled for August 24–25. She alleged that Kejriwal had arbitrarily declared a portion of the Assembly premises as a gallows site without any documentary evidence or historical authenticity in an attempt to gain public sympathy.
