The Himachal Pradesh government has imposed a widow and orphan cess of 60 paise per litre on petrol and high-speed diesel. The levy is intended to generate additional resources for supporting widows and orphaned children.
Under Article 270 of the Constitution, certain Union taxes, cesses and surcharges are dealt with separately from the divisible pool of taxes shared between the Centre and States. Union cesses and surcharges are not part of the divisible pool, allowing the Centre to retain the revenue collected through them rather than sharing it with States through Finance Commission devolution.
APSC Relevance: Constitutional Provisions on Taxation; Centre–State Fiscal Relations.
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