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The nation was in a fix to decide whether 'Nimbooz' is a lemonade or fruit juice. Don't worry, you don't have to do the tricky task as the Supreme Court stepped in to answer the buzzing question. Well, it is not one of those crazy discussions on Twitter and Reddit threads, in fact, it is in lieu of the petition that has been filed by a company named Aradhana Foods. At present, the drink is categorised as 'fruit pulp or fruit juice-based drink', but the manufacturer company wants it to be categorised as lemonade. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the petition in April by a two-judge bench of justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna.
Once the apex court decides the status of the drink, the exact amount of excise duty to be imposed on it would be determined. The case has been going on since March 2015. Based on the current categorisation by the Allahabad bench of Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in November last year, the bench of justices Dilip Gupta and P Venkata Subba Rao stated that ‘Nimbooz' is a fruit juice-based drink. As a result, it came under tariff Item 2202 90 20 of the Central Excise Tariff. The company was asked to pay the duty from February 2009 to December 2013 as lemonade.
Later, M/S Aradhana Foods filed a petition to set aside the order, claiming that the drink is lemonade and hence it should be categorised under CETH 2022 10 20 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act 1985.
For the unversed, ‘Nimbooz' was first launched in 2013 by PepsiCo. The popular drink has been described as a product made of real lemon juice with no fizz. The description launched a debate about its category- and questions were raised about Nimbooz's status as a lemonade or fruit juice/fruit pulp-based juice.
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