As many as 697 industrial units owe the state government sales tax of over Rs one crore each. The government has to recover Rs 7,501 crore from such units.

State finance minister Vajubhai Vala, replying to a question by Congress MLA Amit Chavda, said that of 697 defaulters, there were stay orders by courts or other appellate agencies. As many as 83 cases are pending with the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. Vala further said that 76 cases were pending with the debt recovery tribunal or the liquidator.

In 271 cases, the defaulter was not traceable. In 10 cases, the process to attach the property has begun while in 32 cases recovery notices have been slapped. Vala further said that in 98 cases recovery is under process. In several cases where the defaulter is not traceable, the government was tracking transactions done by the unit in the past.

In another question by Babubhai Shah, MLA from Rapar, the minister said there were 103 units that owed the government over Rs 10 crore in sales tax. This year there were 89 defaulters, followed by three in 2007-08 and 11 in 2008-09.