THE STATE Cabinet on Tuesday approved the new Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy-2006, announcing sops for private houses and laying down norms to select a developer for SEZs in the State.
Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav chaired the Cabinet meeting that was held at Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan Annexe office.
This is being considered as yet another step on the part of the government to create an industry friendly environment and attract investors by providing world-class infrastructure.
Briefing media persons, chief secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpai said that the decision was taken in accordance with the provision of section 50 of the Centre’s SEZ Act-2005 that had an overriding effect on the State’s SEZ Act-2002. The chief secretary said that the total number of SEZs to be developed in UP was yet to be decided. The Centre proposed to set up 100 SEZs all over the country, he said adding that the development of SEZs would ensure speedy development and create new employment avenues.
Bajpai said that the Centre had already approved four SEZs for UP. These included one at Moradabad and three at NOIDA, he said. He further said that Centre had also accorded provisional approval to set up 10 SEZs. As per the decision, no stamp duty or registration fee would be imposed on the first transaction of lease between the developer and the industrial unit coming up there. The SEZs would be exempted from the purview of any taxes, levies, cess and the tax imposed by the local bodies.
{{/usCountry}}Bajpai said that the Centre had already approved four SEZs for UP. These included one at Moradabad and three at NOIDA, he said. He further said that Centre had also accorded provisional approval to set up 10 SEZs. As per the decision, no stamp duty or registration fee would be imposed on the first transaction of lease between the developer and the industrial unit coming up there. The SEZs would be exempted from the purview of any taxes, levies, cess and the tax imposed by the local bodies.
{{/usCountry}}This would mean that no trade tax, turnover tax, development tax, Mandi Tax, purchase Tax, Local Bodies Tax or Entry Tax would be imposed on the exports made from the SEZs. However, any sale made in the Domestic Tariff Area would be liable for imposition of normal taxes, he said.
As the SEZs would be declared industrial cities under the provisions of the Article 243Q of the Constitution, the taxes imposed by the local bodies would not be applicable there. The development commissioners of the SEZs would be given the powers of the labour commissioner in the respective SEZs.
Elaborating on the policy, industrial development commissioner (IDC) Atul Gupta said that the State Government had formulated its new SEZ policy on the basis of recommendations of the Ernst and Young that had been appointed as consultants.
The SEZs would be entitled to have their own arrangements for generation, transmission and distribution of power, he said. The SEZs would depend on the UPPCL or distribution companies for supply of power, he said.
As per the decision, the proposed SEZs would be divided into A, B and C categories depending on the area where the SEZs would be developed in public-private sector partnership. The NOIDA and Greater NOIDA would be nodal agencies for category-A of the SEZs that would be developed in the areas under purview of two development agencies.
Other development authorities would act as nodal agencies for the category-B of the SEZs, he said. The UPSIDC would work as the nodal agency to develop the SEZs in areas that had no development authority, he said.
Gupta said that the respective nodal agencies would be responsible for selection of developers for the SEZs on first come first serve basis. Nodal agencies, however, would require prior permission of the State Government to develop any SEZs in an area above 1000 acres, he said.