A new excise law to refine 80-year-old Act will make life easier for oil firms

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Also read | New avatar likely for GST compensation cess There is also some relaxation for the taxman. Tax authorities will have three years to raise duty demands, as opposed to the two-year time limit prescribed in the existing excise law, said Jain. “This Bill may lead to a reduction in compliance burden, and provide a comprehensive legal framework better suited to the current economic landscape," said Jain.

While the Goods and Services Tax has subsumed most goods into it, five products in the oil and gas sector—crude oil, petrol, diesel, natural gas, and jet fuel—were left in the excise duty regime as states were not prepared to bring these high-revenue-earning items into the GST regime. Tobacco attracts both GST and central excise duty. The Centre collected more than ₹3 trillion from central excise in the financial year 2023-24, a bit lower than the ₹3.19 trillion collected in the year before.

States levy value-added tax on petroleum products, not state GST. The proposed Central Excise Bill 2024 seeks to eliminate outdated provisions and incorporate certain regulations into the law itself. Tax credit-related provisions in the excise duty regime are proposed to be included in the new Bill itself.

Also read | GST adoption has given India’s north-eastern states a big developmental push Experts see the effort to modernise the excise law as a sign of the inclusion of petroleum products into GST. In 2015, the service tax law underwent modifications that facilitated a smooth transition to the GST regime for services, said Sanjay Chhabria, lead, indirect taxation, at Nexdigm, a business and professional services company. “In the same way, the government is now focusing on modernising the Central Excise Act with the goal of