Social Welfare Surcharge on imports must be paid in cash; duty credit scrips cannot discharge the surcharge going forward. Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) is a customs duty on imported goods, calculated on the aggregate of duties, taxes and cesses, and is additional to other customs charges. Duty credit scrips under export incentive schemes are a mode of payment for Basic Customs Duty and Additional Customs Duty but do not envisage debit of SWS. Following judicial clarification that SWS is not exempt, SWS must be paid in cash on future imports, while past debits of SWS in duty credit scrips will be accepted as duly collected revenue.