The Supreme Court docket is anticipated to listen to the petition in April.
The Supreme Court docket has agreed to think about whether or not well-liked tender drink ‘Nimbooz’ is a lemonade or a fruit pulp or juice-based drink. The difficulty, as soon as determined by the highest court docket, will decide the precise quantity of excise obligation to be imposed on the product. The petition shall be heard by a two-judge bench of justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna, the court docket introduced on the listening to on March 11. The case has been happening since March 2015, and primarily based on the Supreme Court docket’s resolution, the categorisation of ‘Nimbooz’ shall be modified.
The petition has been filed by an organization named Aradhana Meals that wishes the drink to be categorised as lemonade as a substitute of its present standing of ‘fruit pulp or fruit juice-based drink’. The Supreme Court docket is anticipated to listen to the petition in April.
The present categorisation relies on a choice by the Allahabad bench of Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in November final 12 months. In its resolution, the bench of justices Dilip Gupta and P Venkata Subba Rao categorised ‘Nimbooz’ as a fruit juice-based drink, due to which it got here below tariff Merchandise 2202 90 20 of the Central Excise Tariff.
M/S Aradhana Meals has filed the petition to put aside that order, arguing that the drink have to be categorised below CETH 2022 10 20 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act 1985.
The corporate was requested to pay the obligation from February 2009 to December 2013 as lemonade.
‘Nimbooz’ was launched in 2013 by PepsiCo and the drink was described as made from actual lemon juice with no fizz. This led to a debate about its categorisation – whether or not it needs to be thought-about a lemonade or fruit juice/fruit pulp-based juice.