| Government
handing more incentives for Special Economic Zones
(SEZs) |
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Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are
getting more and more policy related benefits, going
by the slew of reforms being initiated by the government.
Apart from a stable policy, SEZs
have been given additional income tax benefits including
50 per cent exemption on reinvestment of profits
for 10 years. Offshore Banking Units (OBUs) located
in SEZs will get full tax exemption for five years
and 50 per cent exemption thereafter. Under existing
laws, the 100 per cent exemption was limited to
five years while the 50 per cent exemption was applicable
for two years.
In addition, till now the provisions
under which SEZs were governed were enabled through
the customs and excise laws, apart from the Export-Import
Policy. The fiscal regime for SEZ units, developers,
and OBUs will now be governed by the SEZ Act, once
it is approved by Parliament.
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Our Say |
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| The
major benefit from the Cabinet
decision will be a stable investment
climate, which is necessary to
attract large investments. In
fact the main highlight of the
proposed SEZ Act is the provision
for setting up of an SEZ Authority,
which will function as a single-window
for all clearances. The government
has approved 23 greenfield SEZs
but private sector investment
was generally slow in flowing
into the development of these
zones because of the uncertainty
over future concessions. This
legislation will help to a great
extent in providing the much needed
incentives in helping companies
make the decision to set up here.
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The
proposed Act provides for setting up special
courts and a separate enforcement agency to
check economic offences in SEZs. This means
the customs and excise authorities will not
deal with these aspects. It also enables state-governments
to relax labour laws for these zones. The
revenue department was reluctant to give away
powers related to fiscal sops and enforcement
in SEZs. However, the finance minister has
stepped in to clear the issue in favour of
SEZs. SEZs will be the only places where income-tax,
excise and customs-related issues will be
governed by legislation other than the income-tax,
customs and excise laws that are the preserve
of the finance ministry. |
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| Bangalore’s
residential property development throwing up big
opportunities |
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Bangalore’s increasing popularity
as an IT/IteS destination in India is now almost
a cliché. With all these developments, the
residential real estate market in Bangalore is presently
undergoing a complete transformation from the way
it used to operate few years back, and is throwing
up lucrative opportunities in the real estate sector.
Also with falling interest rates and easy availability
of home loans, the city is expected to witness a
huge demand in near future. The land prices in the
suburbs have already doubled, which will soon get
reflected in the up-coming residential projects
in the suburbs.
Historically, Bangalore's local
population was known to look at occupying independent
houses and the apartment culture never existed.
But during the past five years, thanks to the IT
boom, Bangalore witnessed huge population migration
from various parts of India. This brought the apartment
culture to the forefront. With a population base
of 5.5 million, it has become Asia's fastest growing
cities with a decadal growth rate of 61.35 per cent.
The Bangalore market has seen a total of seven million
square feet of residential built-up space added
in the last two quarters in the suburban areas,
where as only 0.5 million square feet of residential
built-up space in the central business district
(CBD).
The major demand comes from the
techies working in various IT/ITES companies. The
demand ranges between US $ 33,300 (Rs 15 lakh) to
US $ 55,600 (Rs 25 lakh) cost segment.
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