Central Excise Duty (CENVAT) is levied on goods manufactured and produced in India. It is levied under the authority of the Central Excise Act, 1944 at the rates prescribed in the First Schedule and Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 as amended by Central Excise Tariff (Amendment) Act, 2004. In addition, education cess at 2 per cent on excise duty amount is levied by Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004. The effective rates may be lower pursuant to general /specific notifications issued by the government granting whole or partial exemption from duty. The duty, in most cases, is levied on the basis of value of the excisable goods.

Value, for this purpose, with effect from 1 July 2000 is the "transaction value" which is:

• For delivery at the time and place of removal;
• Where buyer is not a related person; and
• Price is the sole consideration.

CENVAT is payable by the manufacturer but is, ordinarily, recovered from the buyer as a part of consideration for sale of goods. To reduce the cascading effect of CENVAT, a scheme known as MODVAT was introduced in 1986, which has now been renamed as CENVAT (effective 1 April, 2000). Under the CENVAT Scheme, a manufacturer can avail of the credit of the central excise duties or additional duties of customs (i.e. CVD) paid on specified inputs and capital goods used in the manufacture of excisable goods and also service tax paid on eligible input services and utilize it in discharging central excise duty on finished excisable goods.