India, Jan. 1 -- The government on Wednesday formally annulled the vestige of compensation cess on sin goods such as cigarettes and tobacco products from the Goods and Services Tax regime as decided by the 56th GST Council on September 3.

"This notification shall come into force on the 1st day of February, 2026," the order published late on Wednesday in the Gazette of India said. The vestige of the compensation cess continued to apply to tobacco and tobacco-related items under GST 2.0, despite the tax rate rationalisation effective from September 22.

Simultaneously, the government issued separate notifications to designate February 1 as the date on which the provisions of the Health Security se National Security Cess Act and the Central...