Yamunanagar admn seals three illegal plywood units

Shiv Kumar Sharma

Yamunanagar, April 18

The district administration today sealed three plywood units for violating norms. The electricity supply of the three units — Surya Plywood, Sardar Singh and Sons and Jindal Brothers — was disconnected.

A team of officers checked 23 units after Deputy Commissioner SS Phulia constituted following complaints against illegal plywood units.

Jagadhri SDM Prem Chand, who is the chairman of the committee, and Divisional Forest Officer RK Dhankar said Surya Plywood was sealed, as it was being run without a licence.

The owner of Sardar Singh and Sons had a license to operate one peeling machine, but he was operating three, while the owner of Jindal Brothers failed to produce the license when asked.

Rot runs deep

These three units are among several plywood units operating without licences in the district. In all 316 plyboard presses are registered with district Forest Department, under which the units operate.

Sources said owners of several plywood units had been running more than one press on a licence meant for a single press. Besides, the large size presses are being run against the licences for small size presses.

Not only this. Several owners who have the permission to run a press with the production capacity of seven plyboards in a single operation are allegedly using machines having the production capacity of 10, 12, 14 and 15 plyboards.

Plyboard units are allegedly evading sales tax, causing loss to the exchequer. Tax is charged as per the size of the press and its operation capacity.

The lump sum sales tax is Rs 2.25 lakh per annum on a 4x4x7 press (4 ft by 4 ft signifying the size of a press that has a production capacity 7 plyboards in a single operation).

The data collected from the office of the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner showed that nearly 160 plywood units had been paying Rs 13 crore annually as lump sum sales tax. Besides, more than 100 units were paying Rs 4 crore as sales tax annually, as per its production.