Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Government tightens SEZ Rules. Good Grief!!!

The Government on the recommendations of Finance Ministry issued an order stating that existing corporate cannot relocate their units into SEZs to avail the Tax sops. They have clarified that, corporates have to make fresh investment in plant, machinery and human resources to operate the units from SEZ. Anbody failing to oblige, stand to be disqualified and their SEZ license cancelled. What ? Has that ever happened in India where corruption is the order of the day ? Well it's true that Babus and Netas are the watchgurads but this time they are facing resistance from within the government, the finance ministry.

In a separate development, Business-Standard reports that, SEZ board has taken a tough stand on land acquisition. The board has asked the Maharashtra government to take a second look at 10,000 hectares of land acquired by Reliance Industries. And why not at the land being acquired by Reliance in Haryana and Punjab at fraction of the costs to ruling market prices ? The board is also considering not to issue any permissions for IT SEZs because more than 70 of 150 in the first lot have gone to the IT sector. Don't worry land grabbers this time will come with Biotech applications to grab the land.

The whole idea of SEZ should be carefully re-taught and re-architected for the benefit of the economy and the nation.

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