GST officials raid BJP leader Pankaja Munde’s Vaidyanath Sugar Mill in Beed

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) department searched the Vaidyanath Sugar Factory in Parli, Maharashtra’s Beed district, on Thursday, which belongs to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pankaja Munde, who is also the ruling party’s national general secretary.

According to sources, the GST department has taken action against Ms. Munde’s sugar mill in connection with an alleged GST evasion of 12 crore. According to sources, the factory will most likely be sealed.

The GST’s action against a ruling party politician has raised concerns at a time when leaders of non-BJP opposition parties are under the spotlight from federal agencies.

Despite dismissing the GST raid as a “procedural issue,” Ms. Munde called the move “unfortunate” and stated that the factory had been under lock and key for a long time due to financial distress.

“I inquired with the GST officials as to the cause for their abrupt move. However, I discovered that such an action was mandated from on high. For the past 6-7 years, the Vaidyanath Cooperative Sugar Factory has been losing money. We even met with Union Minister Amit Shah a few days ago to emphasise the sugar plants’ terrible health. The factory must repay a loan of around 250 crore, of which we have already paid off approximately 152 crore. “We have asked the government to assist sick sugar mills like ours,” Ms. Munde stated.

Ms. Munde stated that the factory had been closed for several months and that it was in terrible financial problems as a result of chronically low production since 2011, aggravated by severe drought for three years in a row between 2013 and 2015.

Ms. Munde, who stated that the cause for the raid was “unclear,” expressed dismay that the raid occurred despite her cooperation with the GST department and explanation of her factory’s financial troubles. Following a raid on the factory, the authorities seized several documents.

Ms. Munde’s relationship with the top BJP hierarchy has been icy since the death of her father, BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde. Her relationship with current Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been particularly strained, with the two rarely sharing the dais at any programme.

Ms. Munde had suffered a humiliating setback in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election at the hands of her estranged cousin, the Nationalist Congress Party’s Dhananjay Munde from the Munde’s bastion in Parli (in Beed).

The current Deputy Chief Minister (and then Chief Minister) Fadnavis’ “authoritarian style” of administering the BJP was believed to be the primary source of Ms Munde’s dissatisfaction with the party.

Ms. Munde, as well as other OBC leaders inside the BJP, such as Eknath Khadse (now in the NCP), have criticised Mr. Fadnavis for “engineering” their defeats and refusing them seats.