Ramdev's firms evaded excise duty worth over Rs 20 crore

DEHRADUN: Central Excise sleuths raided the firms of yoga guru Ramdev and claimed to have detected evasion of excise duty of over Rs 20 crore.

The Excise officials raided the firms of Ramdev in Uttarakhand yesterday and found that they were not paying excise duty on a number of cosmetic products being manufactured by them, Deputy Commissioner (Central Excise) R P Singh said today.

Though the total liability of the firms in this regard is still being ascertained, it must run into over Rs 20-22 crore, he said.

It was found that the firms were allegedly not paying excise duty on a number of products like soaps, handwash and facewash for quite some time.

The department is preparing to send a notice to Pantajali Yogpeeth in this connection, he said.