M'rashtra govt to press on with controversial SEZ Bill

Undeterred by strong objections from opposition parties and several non-government groups, the Maharashtra government is to proceed with the Maharashtra Special Economic Zones and Designated Areas Bill in the legislature during the winter session beginning on December 1 at Nagpur.

The bill was introduced in the budget session in April but was not taken up for discussion. There was no progress in the monsoon session either. Now, parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Patil told Business Standard, the Bill would be pushed.

The Act envisages exemption of these SEZs from the ambit of state laws. Laws relating to labour protection, trade unions and town planning won’t apply in SEZs cleared by the Centre. All powers of local bodies would be transferred to the Township Authority, in which the developer would nominate the chairman and two members, while one member each would be nominated by the SEZ Development Commissioner and the state government.

Several non-government bodies have denounced the proposed law as anti-worker.

There are 144 approved SEZs in the state, of which 63 have been notified and 24 are operational.

A senior government official, who did not want to be named, said the processing units in SEZs would be entitled for fiscal beneficts such as waiver in value added tax, octroi and sales tax on goods coming from domestic tariff areas to the SEZs. Further, there would be exemption in stamp duty, registration fee and land assessment tax on all transactions in these units.