AP may offer land on 99-year lease to industries

Govt feels this way it would save the companies on huge investments on land as they will have to pay only a fraction of the market value towards lease amount to govt

The Andhra Pradesh government has proposed to offer land on a 99-year lease as a preferred mode of allotment to the prospective investors.

A new draft industrial policy incorporating this clause in place of the 33-year tenure proposed earlier has been circulated to various departments for their opinions, officials said.

The state government headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has not announced the industrial policy in the last eight months partly in anticipation of the substantial tax incentives from the Centre. In the meanwhile, the chief minister and his officials had held several rounds of discussions and consultations with industry bodies and industrialists to finalise the proposals aimed at aggressively pitching the state for investments.

While the government has sought to improvise on most of the initiatives implemented in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, Naidu, however has favoured the long-term lease instead of the outright sale when it comes to land to industries as land allotments were at the centre of controversy in the earlier governments.

“First it was mooted that the land should be given to companies on a 33-year lease. Later, it was thought it be too short a period after consulting with the industry bodies. Now the lease period has been enhanced to 99 years,” an industry department official said.

The government feels the lease route would save the companies of huge investments in land as they will have to pay only a fraction of the market value towards the lease amount to the government.

The government has not provided any other options with regard to the land allotment in this draft policy, the officials said.