The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : States told to acquire land for SEZs by consent and not compulsion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

States told to acquire land for SEZs by consent and not compulsion

Special Correspondent

“SEZ policy needed some fine-tuning”
No proposal to cap on SEZs in the IT sector

CHENNAI: Though the Union Commerce Ministry gives top priority for employment generation through Special Economic Zones, it has made it clear to all the States that land acquisition should be done by consent, and not by compulsion, Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said on Monday.

Addressing a seminar on “SEZs-prospects and challenges” here, he said the State Governments could not use the SEZ Act as an alibi for forcibly taking over farmland through their industrial development agencies.

Referring to the recent controversy over land acquisition for the SEZs, Mr.Pillai said that in the last 15 months since the Act came into force, for the bulk of the 362 “formally approved” proposals so far, nearly 49,000 hectares in different parts of the country was available with them.

This extent of land was minuscule; by no stretch of imagination it would affect the country’s food security. These land under the possession of the State industrial development agencies or private developers had been lying idle. Now they have been unlocked for productive purposes, he said.

As for the concerns raised by the Finance Ministry over revenue losses, owing to tax concessions given to the SEZs, he said a study conducted by the Commerce Ministry put the annual loss at the order of Rs.48,000 crore, but if it was set off against the economic gains that would accrue from the SEZs, the overall impact came to Rs.50,000 crore. He said the SEZ policy needed some fine-tuning. It was still early to make an overall assessment of SEZs.

Denying that the SEZs were going to only some States, he said the western region accounted for 32 per cent of the approved SEZs, the northern States came second with 30 per cent, the south accounted for 24 per cent and the share of the eastern region stood at 14 per cent. The former Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, S. Narayan, stressed the need to evolve a mechanism to ensure resettlement, rehabilitation and jobs for those whose land is acquired.

Industries Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the Tamil Nadu Government looked at the SEZ format as a means of employment generation. S. Viswanathan of Industrial Economist spoke.

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