New Delhi: The finance ministry has identified Reliance Industries, GMR Power Corp, Sterlite Industries, Gillette India Ltd and Computer Graphics Ltd as some of the well- known companies that have been involved in major evasion of excise duty for the last three financial years.

Minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam made a statement in the Lok Sabha on 15 December, 2006, saying excise duty evasion to the tune of Rs26,941 crore was detected in the period till November 2006.

According to the finance the losses for the tree years were:

• 2003-04: 9,091 cases of excise duty resulted in a loss of Rs9,489 crore
• 2004-05: 7,927 cases were detected accounting for Rs4,273 crore in excise evasion
• 2005-06: 6,689 cases were detected leading to a revenue loss of Rs.4,606 crore.
• Till November 2006: 3,407 cases were detected accounting for a loss of Rs8,573 crore

The list of 50 top evaders disclosed by the minister in Parliament contains the "names of major excise duty evaders who have evaded more than Rs25 crore as on November 2006".

Reliance Industries Ltd, Jamnagar is named for having evaded Rs172.8 crore, against its name for the year 2004-05.

Then comes GMR Power Corporation, which has evaded Rs.138.3 crore in 2003-04.

Till November 2006-07, the biggest excise duty evader was JSW Steels Ltd, which evaded excise duty to the tune of Rs.121.9 crore.

Reliance Industries is mentioned thrice in the list with a second evasion of Rs82.87 crore in 2004-05 and a third evasion the same year to the tune of Rs.53.67 crore. The total of excised duty evasion by Reliance Industries for a single year therefore comes to Rs.309.4 crore.

Other notable names in these last four years include, Indian Aluminium Co Ltd for evading Rs.128.2 crore,; Baroda Rayon Corp Ltd, Surat for Rs50 million crore; Hindustant Motors Ltd for Rs34.35 crore; Chambal Fertilisers Ltd, Kota, for Rs33.59 crore and Rs33.57 crore; Gillette India Ltd, Baddi, for Rs86.43 crore; Escorts Ltd, Faridabad, for Rs60.28 crore; Computer Graphics Ltd for Rs40.74 crore; Titan Industries, Rs27.38 crore; Jindal Drugs Ltd, Jammu, for Rs27 crore.