The industrial units operating in special economic zone (SEZ) Pithampur are facing a peculiar situation as they are getting property tax notices from local municipality even though SEZs are exempted from urban local body taxes.
While the state chief secretary Anthony DeSa, in a meeting held in March 2015, had directed the departments concerned to issue notification to remove the anomaly, no action has been taken so far.
As a result, all the industries in SEZ are getting bills from the local bodies every year. Since it is a tax demand, the bill, which runs to crores for some industries has to be mentioned in their balance sheet.
“The state government never tires of selling Madhya Pradesh as a good investment destination, but the industry department has not bothered to issue a notification exempting industries in SEZ from paying taxes to the local bodies. The industries pay taxes to AKVN, which provides civic amenities to them,” Pithampur industry association president Gautam Kothari said.
Minutes of a meeting held on March 24, 2015 (a copy is with HT) on issues related to SEZ show that a decision was taken that notified SEZs of MP will be declared as urban area and this area will be specified to be an industrial township by commerce and industry department under MP special economic zone (special provisions) Act 2003. As a follow up, the urban administration and environment department would notify these notified SEZ as industrial township so that these areas are excluded from purview of various municipal acts. It was also decided that commerce and industry department appoint an authority as the developer for providing municipal services.
{{/usCountry}}Minutes of a meeting held on March 24, 2015 (a copy is with HT) on issues related to SEZ show that a decision was taken that notified SEZs of MP will be declared as urban area and this area will be specified to be an industrial township by commerce and industry department under MP special economic zone (special provisions) Act 2003. As a follow up, the urban administration and environment department would notify these notified SEZ as industrial township so that these areas are excluded from purview of various municipal acts. It was also decided that commerce and industry department appoint an authority as the developer for providing municipal services.
{{/usCountry}}The Pithampur industry association has now written to the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chohan asking him to intervene in this matter and ensure that the notification is issued at the earliest.
Principal secretary (commerce and industry) Mohammed Suleman could not be contacted for his comment. An official of Development Commissioner SEZ, Indore, said that the matter will be taken up in the next meeting with the state government.
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