Sources say GST Council to mull levying cess on sugar at next meet.

The GST Council may take up the issue of imposing cess on sugar at its next meeting, likely in the first week of May. We may discuss the issue of levying cess on sugar, although we are yet to receive the formal agenda, states have been told that this topic will be discussed at the next meet. Earlier, the government levied cess of 124 rupees per 100 kg on sugar mills, which was passed on to consumers. The cess collected went to the Sugar Development Fund, managed by the food ministry, for modernisation and expansion of mills. The cess is not in force anymore, as most indirect taxes were subsumed under the goods and services tax regime, rolled out in July.