CESS cut on 795 import lines from April 2027

Saturday, 14 November 2026 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

456 intermediate and capital goods lines to be CESS-free from 1 Apr. 2027
25% cut on 64 lines sensitive for local industries, including cement, paints, and tyres
43 more sensitive lines freed outright, including tiles, sanitaryware, and cables
All 800 listed lines to be CESS-free by 1 Apr. 2029

CESS will be cut on 795 tariff lines from 1 April 2027 under the 2027 Budget proposals unveiled by President and Finance Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Thursday.

The cuts remove the levy entirely on 499 lines and reduce it by 25% on 64 lines classed as sensitive for local industries, according to lists [issued by: source?].

The larger list, “Intermediate and Capital Goods – List of HS 693”, shows the levy roughly halved on most of its lines as of 1 April 2026. From 1 April 2027, 456 of these lines will become CESS-free. They include paddy and husked rice, crude palm oil, virgin coconut oil, coloured glass and welded steel tubes. Four other lines on the list were already CESS-free as of 1 April 2026.

Another 232 lines on that list will be cut by between about 40% and 50% in April 2027. Maize flour, for example, drops from 13% to 7%, and white cement from Rs. 2 to Rs. 1 per kg. All but one line will be CESS-free from 1 April 2028. The exception is steel T sections, which stay at Rs. 5 per kg in 2027, fall to Rs. 3 per kg in 2028 and reach zero in 2029.

The second list, “Selected Intermediate and Capital Goods sensitive for Local Industries – List of HS 107”, is unchanged until April 2027, when the levy on 64 of its lines will be cut by 25%. CESS on Portland cement in packings of 50 kg and below falls from Rs. 7 to Rs. 5.25 per kg, and on paints from Rs. 150 to Rs. 112.50 per kg. Motorcycle tyres drop from 25% or Rs. 300 per kg to 18.75% or Rs. 225 per kg. Paper packaging, soap wrappers, stationery, polymer dispersions and timber products face similar cuts. Plastic ball point pen barrels keep their 10% rate, but the alternative Rs. 420 per kg rate falls to Rs. 315 per kg.

The levy on 63 of these 64 lines will fall to half its current rate from 1 April 2028. All 64 will be CESS-free from 1 April 2029.

The other 43 lines on the sensitive list will become CESS-free from 1 April 2027 without phasing. They include marble and granite, roofing and wall tiles, squatting pans, steel bridge sections, aluminium doors and windows, sealed batteries, co-axial and other electrical cables, vehicle radiators, silencers and modular steel buildings.