The Lok Sabha passed the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019, making a trust or any entity notified by the Central government eligible for consideration of grant of permission to set up a unit in special economic zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Union Commerce and\nIndustry Minister Piyush Goyal said the Bill, which would replace an ordinance,\nwas aimed at improving and encouraging more investments and introducing features\nincluding single-window clearance and to ease imports and exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo attract both\ndomestic and international investors, the Prime Minister wants to keep up with\nthe evolving business environment,\u201d Mr. Goyal said, introducing the\nlegislation. \u201cTo this effect, we want to add alternative investment funds trust\nin the definition of persons,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition parties,\nhowever, questioned the manner in which the Bill had been brought in, with\nCongress MP Shashi Tharoor stating, \u201cAs per rule, an ordinance can be\npromulgated only when the President deems it necessary in emergency situations\nand when issues of extreme urgency arise and when it\u2019s not possible to wait for\nParliament to convene.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Minister has to\nexplain the urgency in this matter,\u201d Mr. Tharoor said. \u201cThe PM must not treat\nthis House as a rubber stamp for his political agenda. The Congress is proud of\nIndia\u2019s economic growth, but we urge this government to stop with the\nordinances and bring Bills to this Parliament for debate and discussion,\u201d he\nadded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have failed as\nmembers of Parliament to keep a check on the misuse of this Article,\u201d the\nCongress MP asserted, adding \u201cThere is no cogent reason given for this\nemergency situation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asserting that the\ncountry was \u2018unfortunately\u2019 yet to realise the vision of the SEZ Act 2005, Mr.\nTharoor said: \u201cCurrently unemployment in India has reached the highest rate in\nabout 45 years. In the last five years, our exports have barely increased by\n10%. According to replies in the House, 150 SEZs are non operational. Half the\nland notified for SEZs is lying vacant, exports are not growing fast enough to\nhelp generate employment. What structural reforms will you undertake to ensure\nthe advance of this policy?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Questioning the\ngovernment for the urgency in passing an ordinance, DMK leader D.N.V.\nSenthilkumar said: \u201cLarge chunk of trusts owned by minorities have been shut\ndown under the previous Act. There are suspicions that the government has a\nhidden agenda to favour a selected few who are close to the government and have\nvested interests.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BJD member Bhartruhari\nMahtab asked how the provision of bringing trusts and entitities under the new\namendment would encourage FDI inflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe only thing\nmentioned in the Bill is you are making an amendment to bring trusts and \u2018any\nentity\u2019 (it needs to be defined). But it should be notified by the Central\ngovernment,\u201d said Mr. Mahtab. \u201cA law on policy has to be non-discriminatory and\nwithout any discretion. In the last 10 years, more bungling has taken place\nwith more discretionary power of the decision-making authority. The idea was\nthat FDI will increase with the SEZ Act. But last year, the FDI came down,\u201d he\nasserted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Replying to Opposition\nMr. Goyal said that many progresive Bills have been blocked due to the disturbances\nand delays of both the Houses. Hence the Ordinance route has been adopted. “In\nthe Constitution, the President has been vested with powers to promulgate an\nOrdinance after analyzing its merits,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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