Coca Cola India said it will have no other option but to shut down few of its firms if a sin tax of 40 percent is imposed on soft drinks in the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).
It may be noted that Arvind Subramanian committee has recommended 40 percent sin tax on aerated beverages with regard to GST. Coca Cola India said in a statement that thus move will have negative effect on the entire beverage ecosystem”.
The soft drink giant added that lakhs of retailers, thousands of distributors, soft drink equipment manufacturers, Farmers, producers of raw materials and everyone involved in the whole forward and backward Supply Chain of this sytem will suffer with increase in GST.
“This is not in line with the ‘Make In India’ programme launched by the government of India, which recognizes ‘Food Processing’ as an important Sector within the program and specifically mentions our Industry under the line item category of ‘Consumer food: packaged food, aerated soft drinks, packaged drinking water’ and also ‘Beverages: fruit-based and cereal-based’,” added the statement of the company.
