BJP for SEZs with stringent steps against misuse

New Delhi, Oct 10: Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, the head of the party's five-member panel on the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) issue, today said that his organisation favoured setting up SEZs for export promotion but with stringent provisions to prevent misuse.

Mr Naidu, after discussions with former Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley, who initiated the SEZ process during the NDA regime, said that the panel was making a systematic study in all the states. ''We want SEZs to boost exports but never on agricultural lands or be located next to big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad or Bangalore but throughout the country,'' he said.

There have been concerns that the SEZs were displacing the lands meant for agriculture at a time when the food production was dipping giving anxious moments to food security watchers.

"We are concerned about unfair means adopted in acquisition of lands for SEZs and the BJP is not for misuse of SEZ concept by the real estate mafia", he said.

The process should be fair and those who lose the land should be adequately compensated and be made partners in the development. They should receive healthy package and a transparent tax structure must be evolved so that the governments did not lose their revenues, he added.

He said the SEZs should encourage manufacturing sector and the entire produce should be for exports. If part of production is to be marketed within the country, it should attract higher taxes and receive no incentive from the exchequer. Similarly, the Information Technology sector which already enjoys concessions should not be housed in these zones.

The panel appointed by BJP President Rajnath Singh during the National Executive at Dehradun, he said, would take the views of Associations of Industries, trade and commerce, trade unions and state governments including those run by the BJP and its allies before preparing the report.

UNI