'Nimbooz' A Lemonade Or A Fruit Juice? Supreme Court To Decide

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether popular soft drink ‘Nimbooz' is a lemonade or a fruit pulp or juice-based drink. The issue, once decided by the top court, will determine the exact amount of excise duty to be imposed on the product. The petition will be heard by a two-judge bench of justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna, the court announced at the hearing on March 11. The case has been going on since March 2015, and based on the Supreme Court's decision, the categorisation of ‘Nimbooz' will be changed.

The petition has been filed by a company named Aradhana Foods that wants the drink to be categorised as lemonade instead of its current status of 'fruit pulp or fruit juice-based drink'. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the petition in April.

The current categorisation is based on a decision by the Allahabad bench of Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in November last year. In its decision, the bench of justices Dilip Gupta and P Venkata Subba Rao categorised ‘Nimbooz' as a fruit juice-based drink, because of which it came under tariff Item 2202 90 20 of the Central Excise Tariff.

M/S Aradhana Foods has filed the petition to set aside that order, arguing that the drink must be categorised under CETH 2022 10 20 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act 1985.

The company was asked to pay the duty from February 2009 to December 2013 as lemonade.

‘Nimbooz' was launched in 2013 by PepsiCo and the drink was described as made of real lemon juice with no fizz. This led to a debate about its categorisation - whether it should be considered a lemonade or fruit juice/fruit pulp-based juice.