Congress MP demands inquiry Pan Masala scandal

Guwahati, Aug 02 (UNI) The Congress MP from Assam, Kirip Chaliha, today demanded a detailed inquiry into the alleged central excise evasion scam by Pan Masala industries of the North East.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Mr Chaliha demanded a high-level inquiry into misuse of the Central Excise and Income Tax concessions and other fiscal incentive by Pan, Masala, Tobacco&Tobacco products units under the North East Industrial Policy (NEIP).

He had aslo written a letter to the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram saying that the industries had been duping the state exchequer and amashing several thousand of crores of rupees since 1997.

He also demanded full recovery of the unitendened benefits from the defaulters with retrospective effect and punishment for them.

Under the NEIP, the investors were given incentives to set up industries in the NE. However, Mr Chaliha said the industries had set up some assembling units showing them as full-fledged factories.

''These Pan Masala units with or without tobacco and chewing tobacco units were mere mixing and packaging units. The raw tobacco was transported from New Delhi to Guwahati and then transported to other parts of the country after making small pouches,'' he said.

He also alleged that the industries have siphoned several crores of rupees by exporting the masala to counties like Switzerland in the name of industrialisation.

The MP had raised the matter in the Parliament asserting that such provisions had neither boosted the industrialisation of the region nor generated any employment opportunities.

He also demanded to freeze the escrow accounts to these defaulting manufacturers amounting to hundreds of crores.

UNI