GST Officials seized assets worth Rs. 19 crore from sugar factory owned by National Secretary

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Commissionerate seized assets worth Rs.19 crore from Pankaja Munde’s sugar factory in Maharashtra’s Beed district on Monday for GST evasion on sugar sales.

GST officials had reported tax evasion to Vaidyanath Cooperative Sugar Factory. When they didn’t get a response, they went to the facility and inspected documents in an operation that began late Sunday night. The factory’s boiler and other machinery are among the seized assets.

“I spoke with GST officials about the reason for their sudden action. However, I discovered that such an action was mandated from on high. For the past six and a half years, the Vaidyanath Cooperative Sugar Factory has been losing money. We even met with Union Minister Amit Shah a few days ago to explain the sugar factories’ poor health. The factory is required to repay a loan of nearly Rs.250 crore, of which we have already paid approximately Rs 52 crore. We have asked the government to assist sick sugar mills like ours,” Pankaja Munde explained.

Munde stated that the factory had been closed for several months and was in dire financial straits due to persistently low production since 2011, which had been exacerbated by severe drought for three consecutive years between 2013 and 2015.

Munde’s relationship with top officials has been cold since the death of her father, Gopinath Munde, in 2014. In July, Munde expressed concern about political developments in Maharashtra and announced her intention to step down from politics, but she denied rumours that she would join the Congress.

Munde was defeated in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election by her estranged cousin Dhananjay Munde of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from the family’s stronghold of Parli.