LAHORE: The Fruit Juice Council (FJC) has urged the government to rationalise the federal excise duty (FED) structure on packaged fruit juices in the federal budget 2026-27 to support the documented industry, local agriculture and healthier consumer choices.

FJC has proposed two key measures including reduction in the existing FED on packaged juice variants from 20 per cent to 10pc, and granting complete FED exemption to a new category of fruit juices with no added sucrose/white sugar.

The council highlighted that the current taxation regime has a 20pc FED in addition to 18pc GST. This high taxation has severely impacted the formal packaged juice industry, causing industry volumes to decline by more than 45pc since 2023.

The shrinking of the documented sector has also accelerated the growth of low-quality and unregulated alternatives in the undocumented market, adversely affecting food safety standards, tax compliance, and long-term government revenue generation.

“The industry is fully aligned with the government’s objective of promoting healthier consumption choices. We are proposing that the existing FED be reduced from 20pc to 10pc while exempting the new no-added- sucrose/white-sugar category from FED to encourage healthier innovation, improve affordability, and revive the documented sector,” said Aatekah Mir Khan, FJC CEO in a statement on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2026