India, Dec. 1 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to introduce a bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday to levy "Health Security se National Security Cess" on pan masala and any other items notified by the central government to meet expenditure on national security and for public health, people in the know said on Sunday.

The bill may immediately impose a cess on pan masala and could later extend it to other sin goods such as cigarettes and tobacco products (excluding bidis), they said. It is also expected to empower the central government to add any item to the list in the future in the interest of public welfare. Once the bill becomes an act, the proposed cess will come into effect on the date the government notifies it ...