Giving some relief to Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the Finance Ministry has asserted that the SEZ Unit or the Developer shall be entitled to refund Swachh Bharat cess paid on the specified services on which ab-initio exemption is admissible but not claimed. This cess was imposed by the government from November last year to fund its cleanliness drive.
The Ministry has also given the formula for calculating refund due to SEZ units and developers. The concessions provided to SEZs are expected to generate some interest of investors in them. Ministry highlighted that the investors have been losing interest in these zones for various reasons including global economic slowdown, imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT) and dividend distribution tax (DDT). Besides, many business houses have surrendered SEZs while the government on its part has given more time to some developers to execute the projects.
Earlier in November, the government has decided to impose a 0.5 percent cess on all taxable services which are presently liable to service tax, to fund the Swachh Bharat programme, in a bid to provide a boost to the clean India initiative. This tax came into effect from November 15, 2015. With the imposition of the cess, service tax rate has gone up from 14 per cent to 14.5 per cent.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: