Just Juice hit for tax

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 38

Just Juice hit for tax

PA Wellington Customs has charged the Apple and Pear Board backdated sales tax of about $3 million for Just Juice marketed as pure fruit, juice when it contained an additive.

But the board might not have to pay up, depending on the outcome of the appeal it has lodged with the Minister of Customs, Mrs Shields. Customs have issued a billfor the 20 per cent wholesale sales tax it says the board should have paid for Just Juice sold in the year to February, 1984. The department bases the claim on its belief that the product did not meet the deflnition of fruit juice outlined in the Food and Drug Regulations, 1973. It says the board’s use of dimalic acid in Just Juice during that period made the product liable for the tax charged on all fruit drinks and soft drinks.

Only fruit juice as defined by the regulations is exempt from the charge. Meanwhile, Mrs Shields has referred the board’s appeal against the claim to the Crown Law Office for a legal opinion. The board argues that the process of removing the taste and colour from apple juice before adding other juices took away the natural malic acid that the Health Department uses as a measure of purity. Dimalic acid was added to give the product the minimum levels required.