UNITED KINGDOM – Last week, U.K. Treasury Chief George Osborne announced a sugar tax on soft drinks as part of his budget plan, set to take effect in 2018.

CNBC reports that Osborne announced plans for a soft drinks levy in his budget speech, and he expects it will raise £520 million ($749 million) in its first year of enactment. The soft drinks market in the U.K. is worth £15.7 billion, according to the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), which is considering legal action against the government.

“At this stage all options are on the table,” Gavin Partington, director general of the BSDA, told CNBC. “We need clarification about how this tax is going to work, exactly what's excluded and what's not. Nothing can be ruled out at this stage.”

Following the announcement of the levy, Partington said in a press release that the association was “extremely disappointed” by the government’s decision “to hit the only category in the food and drink sector which has consistently reduced sugar intake in recent years—down 13.6% since 2012.” He added that the soft drink industry is the only category “with an ambitious plan for the years ahead—in 2015 we agreed on a calorie reduction goal of 20% by 2020. By contrast, sugar and calorie intake from all other major take-home food categories is increasing, which makes the targeting of soft drinks simply absurd.”

CNBC notes that Coca-Cola GB or A.G. Barr both denied the possibility of a legal action.

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola GB told CNBC that once the government’s plan is clear, “we'll decide on what steps to take as a business and how best to continue the work we have done to help people consume less sugar."