Montek against concessional finance to SEZs

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today joined the fierce debate on 'Special Economic Zones', saying that he was against providing concessional finance to them.

"While I would want more finance being provided to SEZs, I am against concessional finance", Dr Ahluwalia said addressing a press conference here.

These remarks of Dr Ahluwalia came while he was speaking to the Press on the coming mega conference on Infrastructure, where SEZ has been listed as a topic for discussion.

Dr Ahluwalia said the differences among various Ministeries as well as the RBI on SEZs were exaggereted.

In this connection, Dr Ahluwalia said while the Finance Ministry was keen to ensure that tax sops are not misused, the Commerce Ministry has stated that these will be so designed that there is no scope for doing so.

The Plan Panel Deputy Chief, however, said there were serious issues relating to the acquisition of land and it was important to ensure that a fair compensation is provided in this regard.

"This, however, is not peculiar to SEZs but entails acquisition of land for any other purpose," he said.

The Infrastructure Conference, scheduled for October 7. will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apart from Dr Ahluwalia, the event will also be addressed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Shipping and Road Transport Minister T R Baalu and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad.

Recently government leaders and political parties have expressed their views on the subject, sometimes at variance with each other.

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