Custom Tariff

Finance Bill, 2007

Chapter VI

Secondary and Higher Education Cess

126. (1) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (12) of section 2, there shall be levied and collected, in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter as surcharge for purposes of the Union, a cess to be called the Secondary and Higher Education Cess, to fulfil the commitment of the Government to provide and finance secondary and higher education.

 (2) The Central Government may, after due appropriation made by Parliament by law in this behalf, utilise, such sums of money of the Secondary and Higher Education Cess levied under sub�section (12) of section 2 and this Chapter for the purposes specified in sub-section (1) as it may consider necessary.

 127. The words and expressions used in this Chapter and defined in the Central Excise Act, 1944, the Customs Act, 1962 or Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994, shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts or Chapter, as the case may be.

129. (1) The Secondary and Higher Education Cess levied under section 126, in the case of goods specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, being goods imported into India, shall be a duty of customs (in this section referred to as the Secondary and Higher Education Cess on imported goods), at the rate of one per cent., calculated on the aggregate of duties of customs which are levied and collected by the Central Government in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), under section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962 and any sum chargeable on such goods under any other law for the time being in force, as an addition to, and in the same manner 55 as, a duty of customs, but not including �

 (a) the additional duty referred to in sub-section (5) of section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975;

(b) the safeguard duty referred to in sections 8B and 8C of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975;

(c) the countervailing duty referred to in section 9 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975;

(d) the anti-dumping duty referred to in section 9A of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975; and

(e) the Education Cess chargeable under section 94 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004 and Secondary and Higher Education Cess on imported goods.  

(2) The Secondary and Higher Education Cess on imported goods shall be in addition to any other duties of customs chargeable on such goods, under the Customs Act, 1962 or any other law for the time being in force and the Education Cess chargeable under section 94 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004.

 (3) The provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and the rules and regulations made thereunder, including those relating to refunds and exemptions from duties and imposition of penalty shall, as far as may be, apply in relation to the levy and collection of the Secondary and Higher Education Cess on imported goods as they apply in relation to the levy and collection of the duties of customs on such goods under the Customs Act, 1962 or the rules or the regulations made thereunder, as the case may be.

Also refer Notification No. 27/2007-Cus Dated 1/3/2007 and  Notification No. 28/2007-Cus Dated 1/3/2007