5% Excise Duty Hike for Energy Drinks

Some good news for all of us —  In India’s recent budget announcement, finance minister Arun Jaitley has proposed raising the excise dutys on ‘aerated drinks with added sugar’ such as, Coke and Pepsi, as well as energy and sports drinks and other flavoured drinks with sugar or sweeteners.

This will include many brands such as Gatorade, Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, Appy Fizz, B’lue, Red Bull and Tzinga. This is a good start to control these sugary chemical drinks. There is not official comment from Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India executives as yet but according to a Times of India report an industry expert, who did not wish to be named, acknowledged that the 5% hike in excise duty will have a deep-reaching impact on the beverage industry.

The impact is yet to be seen but this is definitely a step in the right direction in controlling the rampant rise of sugary drinks and harmful energy drinks.

#aerateddrinks #energydrinks #sugar