Why would SEZs succeed where the Export Processing Zones failed?
All the EPZ were set up by the Central government and the infrastructure was funded by the State governments. In SEZs, you are giving the private developer infrastructure, power and tax benefit for ten years. Forget about SEZs, outside them too — in the infrastructure sector — you get the same tax holiday under section 80-I-A of the Income Tax Act. In SEZs, the extra benefit is in customs duty. . . but if the manufacturer sells his product in the domestic market, all that benefit goes. If someone builds roads, power plants, water supply facilites, housing colonies, schools, colleges, airports, etc, we want to encourage that. Your rehabilitation policy is not yet in place. Displaced people are cheated. It reads well on paper, but people are not getting what is due to them. In the case of rehabilitation, I agree that displaced persons get a lowly paid job because they don’t have proper skills. But in Chennai, an NGO is now working to train people. Farmers’ sons are being trained and wi
