At present, the said declaration is carried on the crown cap. According to the new amendment notification issued on March 29, by the department of food processing industries, the government has granted soft drink manufacturers a period of five years to phase out the existing stock of RGBs in the market. The earlier deadline to comply with the December 21, 2000 directive was March 29, 2001.

While the industry sighed a relief, the new order, it iis said does not end its woes completely. The soft drink industry had requested the government to allow a seven-year moratorium to the industry so that they can incoporate the change on the bottles as and when they are being phased out. According to the Indian Soft Drinks Manufacturers Association (ISDMA) spokesperson, the life of a bottle is seven years in India and even the Council of European Communities allows 10 years to enable modifications.

However, the new notification takes into account a period of five years as `their expected useful life' and also lays down different effective date for RGBs where year of manufacture is embossed on the bottle and where it is not. For instance, for a bottle on which year of manufacture is 2000, the effective date to carry the label would be April 1, 2006, while for a bottle manufactured in 1995, the deadline would be April 1, 2001. ``It's simply not feasible to sort out bottles on this basis,'' the Isdma spokesperson said.

It may be recalled that in response to the earlier directive, representations had been made by Isdma and the CII on behalf of the industry. The new order, Isdma had argued would hit the industry hard and also take it back by Rs 600 crore. Around 4 lakh tonnes of raw materials would be required to replace the existing stock of bottles and whereas the glass manufacturers do not have the kind of capacity. If the industry were to abide by the new guidelines, it would mean that the industry would have to invest in new bottles which would cost them Rs 500 crore. Both Coke and Pepsi, officials point out, are not in a position to invest this much since both are loss-making companies with combined losses at Rs 600 crore. The replacement of bottles as per schedule is being enforced so that all the existing returnable glass bottles now being used would have completed their expected useful life and would be replaced by new bottles carrying the required declaration `contains no fruit'.