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The periodic review of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy will not hurt industry, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha on Monday. She said policy review was a continuous process and would ensure that SEZs are made more effective.
Replying to a supplementary during Question Hour from BJP member Kirit Somaiya on SEZs turning into “land grab and tax havens” and that the proposed “sunset clause” with regard to tax incentives would have a “retrospective impact” on IT-based SEZs, Sitharaman said the matter would be looked into, “but the fact remains that we are not going to hurt the industry by bringing in something either in retrospect or that which is going to hurt the industry.”
On another question by Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy on the scarcity of land for SEZs, the Minister said under the law, land is acquired by the State governments and it was for them to take a position on it.
She said in 2007, it was made plain that no fertile lands could be acquired and no compulsory acquisition of land for the SEZs could happen, adding that wherever land had been acquired, it was barren or infertile. Single crop land can be acquired to some extent, she added.
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