GST officials seize assets worth Rs 19 crore from Pankaja Munde’s sugar factory in Beed
GST officials had notified Vaidyanath Cooperative Sugar Factory about tax evasion. When it went unanswered, they visited the facility and inspected documents in an operation that began late Sunday night. The seized assets include the factory’s boiler and other machinery.
“I spoke to the GST authorities about the reason behind their sudden action. But I learned there was an order from above to take such an action. The Vaidyanath Cooperative Sugar Factory has been running in loss for the last six-seven years. We even met Union Minister Amit Shah a few days ago to explain the poor health of sugar factories. The factory has to pay off a loan of nearly Rs 250 crore, of which we have already paid around Rs 52 crore. We have requested the government to help sick sugar mills like ours,” Pankaja Munde said.
Munde informed that the factory had been locked for several months and in dire financial straits owing to persistently low production since 2011, compounded by severe drought for three consecutive years between 2013 and 2015.
Munde’s equation with the top BJP brass since the passing of her father Gopinath Munde in 2014 has been frigid. In July, Munde expressed concern over political developments in Maharashtra and said she would take a break from politics but dismissed speculation that she would join the Congress.
In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, Munde suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of her estranged cousin Dhananjay Munde of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), from the family’s bastion in Parli.
