Sasa gets excise exemption

MUMBAI: Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, a woman's organisation, registered under the Public Trust Act, has been exempted excise duty to the tune of Rs 127 crore for the five year period prior to November 1997. The organisation had been denied exemption of duty for manufacturing its washing soap brand called Sasa.

The Central Excise Department had made a demand of Rs 127 crore to the company disputing the claim that its Sasa brand of soaps and detergents is manufactured in a rural area. According to Mr Raksh Pal Abrol, President, Mumbai Small Scale Industries Association, "the central excise department has worked out the excise duty without looking at the exemption notification which debarred a rural area from excise duties." -- Our Bureau