Montek not in favour of extra sops to SEZs

Posted online: Saturday, October 07, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

MUMBAI, OCT 6: Batting for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the
finance ministry, the Planning Commission on Friday said concessions to
special economic zones (SEZs) should be at par with those provided to
infrastructure projects.
“SEZs should be given treatment similar to any other infrastructure
project and there should be no concessional finance,” Planning
Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters on the
sidelines of a Sebi function.

Supporting RBI — which recently directed banks to treat lendings to SEZs
at par with those to real estate, rendering advances to these zones
expensive — Ahluwalia said he was not in favour of concessional benefits
and additional incentives to SEZs.

The commerce and finance ministries have been at loggerheads over the
mushrooming of SEZs, which North Block felt could lead to a revenue
rip-off as many of them were being set up to take advantage of tax
benefits. SEZs involve a lot of construction for real estate development
and should be given treatment similar to any other infrastructure
project, Ahluwalia asserted.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=142656