Excise duty evasion case against Guthka manufacturer

New Delhi, Oct 22 (UNI) In one of the largest cases of Excise evasion detection in the recent past, a case has been registered against Som Sugandh Industries Ltd, Kundli, the manufacturer of popular brands of Gutkha.

The case was registered against the company by the Central Excise Commissionerate, Rohtak and Delhi Zone. Sugandh Industries manufacturers the brands 'Dilbagh', 'Talab' and 'Tez.' ''The unit was kept under surveillance for a few days,'' a statement said here today. Thereafter, a team of officers of Rohtak Commissionerate searched the factory premises and the residence of the Manager on October 20 and 21.

The searches revealed an evasion of Central Excise duty of Rs 15.15 crore, payable on account of production of only 19 days for October this year.

It said the modus operandi adopted by the party was that while they had declared to the Department only one shift, the factory, however, worked round the clock. The duplicate set of challans of such unaccounted production and clearances was kept in the personal custody of their Manager at his residence.

This is the second case of evasion booked against this unit.

The earlier case was detected in May this year, involving duty evasion of Rs 9.64 lakh.

This case is symptomatic of the large scale evasion taking place in the Pan Masala, Gutkha and chewing tobacco sector all over the country.

The revenue from these commodities is far short of the estimated revenue that should be emnating on various parameters such as number of packing and filling machines, commodity manufactured and sold, estimates of consumption of raw materials such as Supari.

The revenue from this sector has not been getting the growth which is expected, based on the growing consumption of these products amongst masses.

The Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs had recently issued instructions to tackle the rampant evasion that is characteristic of this sector. Instructions have been issued to the field formations to verify the machines present in the factory, the number of such machines working and for sealing of non-working machines.

''In the light of the detection of this case, the Chairman, has once again reiterated to all the Central Excise officials all over the country to gear up their anti-evasion activities and realise the revenue, the potential of which is very high,'' the statement said.

UNI