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In a significant legislative move during the ongoing Winter Session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Health Security Cess Bill, 2025 in the Rajya Sabha today. The Bill proposes a 0.5% cess on taxable services to fund a dedicated corpus for pandemic preparedness and public health infrastructure modernization.
The introduction of the Cess comes as the government seeks to ringfence funding for the “Ayushman Bharat” digital expansion without widening the fiscal deficit. Opposition leaders have raised concerns about the inflationary impact of an additional levy, but the Finance Ministry argues the ringfenced nature of the fund ensures direct taxpayer benefit.
Simultaneously, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced a major victory in digital asset enforcement. The agency has provisionally attached assets worth ₹4,190 crore linked to a high-profile cryptocurrency money laundering scheme. The seizure was made possible by new data-sharing protocols between the ED and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), signaling a zero-tolerance approach to crypto-non-compliance.
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