Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has proposed hiking steeply the excise duty on aerated drinks while reducing the rates on specified food processing and packaging machinery, mentions IANS.
“These are healthy measures and I hope everyone would welcome them from the point of view of human and fiscal health,” Jaitley said, presenting his maiden budget in parliament.
“I also propose to levy an additional duty of excise at 5 percent on aerated waters containing added sugar,” he added.
He said minimisation of harvest and post harvest losses of agricultural produce is an important measure for tackling food inflation and ensuring food security.
“To incentivise expansion of processing capacity, I propose to reduce the excise duty on specified food processing and packaging machinery from 10 percent to 6 percent,” Jaitley said.
