Centre to Table Excise Amendment Bill in Turbulent Parliament Winter Session; Opposition Targets Voter Roll Revision

Central Excise (Amendment) Bill: The Central government will move the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the second day of the 15-day Winter Session of Parliament.

Amend the Central Excise Act, 1944

The session is expected to be stormy, with Opposition protests likely to continue in both Houses, much like on Monday. union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to introduce the legislation, which seeks to amend the Central Excise Act, 1944, to revise excise duties and cess on tobacco products.

Following the rollout of GST in 2017, the Centre had reduced central excise duties on tobacco products to make room for compensation cess under GST without raising the overall tax burden. According to the government, since the cess will be discontinued once loan liabilities and interest payments are cleared, excise rates now require revision.

Supplementary Demands for Grants

The government on Monday sought approval from Parliament to spend a net additional amount of Rs 41,455.39 crore as the first batch of supplementary demands in the current financial year ending March 31.

The gross additional spending sought by the government is to the tune of Rs 1. 32 lakh crore. The first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26 includes 72 Grants and one Appropriation for various departments of the central government.

Of this, the proposals involving net cash outgo and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the Ministries and Departments or by enhanced receipts or recoveries aggregates to Rs 90,812.17 crore.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh sought suspension of business to debate the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging arbitrary deletions from voter rolls, Booth Level Officer (BLO) deaths and widespread disenfranchisement impacting Articles 14, 21 and 326.

"Moved a motion under Rule 267 (Notice of Motion for Suspension of rules) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Council of States (Rajya Sabha), for the discussion on ECI's SIR: Arbitrary Deletions, BLO Deaths, Disenfranchisement Threatening Articles 14, 21, 326," Sanjay Singh wrote.

On the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament, Singh submitted a Suspension of Business notice in the House, demanding a discussion on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in 12 States and union Territories.

Along with the SIR exercise, he requested a discussion on related matters, including the alleged arbitrary deletion of names from voter lists and the demise of several Booth Level Officers in the States, in the context of the ongoing SIR exercise. In his notice to the Rajya Sabha Secretary-General, Sanjay Singh alleged that the SIR exercise has "triggered a nationwide crisis of electoral integrity... and has instead resulted in mass arbitrary deletions, severe procedural violations, and widespread human distress, posing a serious threat to free and fair elections."

Meanwhile, Congress MP Vijay Kumar (Vijay Vasant) from Kanyakumari moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha, calling the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision “a hasty and unplanned exercise” that has “placed India’s electoral system in jeopardy.”