Water bottling companies in Fiji hope the interim administration will drop its plan to introduce a tax of 20 cents for every litre of water they sell.
The interim administration says bottlers have not been taxed, or charged royalties for the extraction of a scarce resource.
The row with the tax authorities prompted the companies to suspend the bottling of water for several days.
The revenues and customs authority has asked for submissions from the companies by tomorrow to explain their objections.
The spokesperson for bottlers, Jay Dayal, says he hopes the interim administration will make a u-turn.
"Right now the industry needs subsidies, not taxes. Because the local bottlers are relatively young and we are competing in the middle to low end market, with the exception of one particular company. The others are very young and small bottlers and to survive we have to give a price point advantage to our distributors and the consumers to that we can survive with that ferocious competition out there."
Jay Dayal says more than 700 jobs and a prosperous industry are at stake.
