GST: Carbonated fruit juice-based drink to get costlier

The GST Council in its 45th meeting held in Lucknow announced that the carbonated fruit beverages of fruit drink and carbonated beverages with fruit juice will be subject to a GST of 28% with an additional 12% of compensation cess. The tax authorities have always been working upon the classification of fruit-based or fruit juice-based drinks. As per the ingredients of the products they are classified under GST tariff.

FSSAI’s regulations state that if the drink contains fruit content > 10% (5% in case of lemon) then such drink is to be considered as fruit-based beverages and to be classified under Chapter Heading 2202 99 20 taxable at a 12% rate. Another classification is a water-based drink with flavoring, which is basically a drink that contains fruit content < 5 %, classified under Chapter Heading 2202 10 attracts GST at the rate of 28% plus compensation cess of 12%.

There is still no clarity on beverages having fruit content >5% but < 10%.

With GST Council’s decision, carbonated fruit juice companies will now have to revisit their products and determine their classification under GST, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The beverage industry will therefore see an impact of this move. FSSAI’s regulation based on the content of fruit juice or fruit pulp in a beverage will not be the only factor to determine the classification of carbonated drinks. Now any, carbonated drink that contains fruit juice or fruit pulp will attract a higher rate of GST of 28% and will also attract a compensation cess of 12%.