Cess (pronounced ) is a

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

- generally one levied for promoting services like health and education. Governments often charge a cess for the purpose of development in social sectors. The word is a shortened form of "assess". The spelling is due to a mistaken connection with ''census''. "Cess" (, possibly from Latin ) was an official term used in Ireland from at least the 16th century and when that country formed part of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

, but has been superseded by "rate". The term was formerly particularly applied to local taxation. In the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

the term was applied, with a qualifying prefix, to any taxation, such as irrigation-cess and educational-cess. Government censuses referred to them collectively as "cesses", as in "land revenue and cesses". In modern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, the word refers to a tax earmarked for a particular purpose, such as education; such cesses are levied as an additional tax on the basic tax-liability. In

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, "cess" refers to the

property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or Wealth t ...

that was enacted there in 1665 and continued to be levied until the 18th century. The term is used by the rubber industry in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

to refer to rubber export tax, which funds that country's Office of Rubber Replanting Aid Fund. The word has also been used by the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to denote a tariff on imports.

References

Tax terms {{tax-stub