Social Welfare Surcharge on imports must be paid in cash; duty credit scrips cannot discharge the surcharge. Social Welfare Surcharge is an additional Customs duty on imported goods, calculated on the aggregate of duties, taxes and cesses under section 12 of the Customs Act. Duty credit scrips under MEIS/SEIS serve only as a mode of payment for Basic and certain Additional Customs Duties and do not permit debit of SWS. In line with Supreme Court precedent, SWS is not exempted by existing FTP or exemption notifications and therefore must be paid in cash going forward, while past debits of SWS to scrips will be retained.