India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on February 1, a hike in excise duty on cigars, cheroots, pan masala, cigarettes, and other related tobacco products.
The excise duty on cigars and cheroots have been hiked to 12.5% or Rs4,006 per thousand, whichever is higher, from 12.5% or Rs3,755 earlier. On pan masala products the excise duty has been increased to 9% from 6%, while for other unmanufactured tobacco raised to 8.3% from 4.2% earlier.For pan masala products containing tobacco or guthkha, the hike on excise duty will go from 10% to 12%. Duty on non-filter cigarettes of length not exceeding 65mm has been raised to Rs311 per thousand from Rs215.