SEZ developers today said that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has “assured” to look into their suggestion for continuation of tax sops to new units in the DTC regime.
“…(Mukherjee) assured that suggestions…would be looked into carefully,” Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs (EPCES) that led the delegation said after meeting the Finance Minister here.
The revised discussion paper on the Direct Tax Code (DTC), which would overhaul the Income Tax Act, proposes tax exemptions only for the existing SEZ units.
“In case no income tax benefit is provided to the new SEZ units, no entrepreneur would like to set up a unit in the SEZ,” EPCES Chairman R K Sonthalia said.
The income tax benefits (100 per cent exemption for first five years and 50 per cent for the next five years) have helped SEZs attract investments of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
