in orderto allay fears of tax evasion and land grab, the Board of Approval (boa) for special economic zones (sezs) recently issued fresh guidelines for building social infrastructure, hospitals, schools and houses within sez s and also set new investment criteria for developers to qualify for tax breaks.

In its September 21 meeting chaired by G K Pillai, special secretary, Union ministry of commerce and industry (moci), the board decided that sector-specific sez developers must invest a minimum of Rs 250 crore or have a net worth of Rs 50 crore. The multi-product sez developer must invest a minimum of Rs 1,000 crore and have a net worth of Rs 250 crore.moci has already specified minimum land area requirements (