Debesh Das, IT minister of West Bengal, has said that the state government is interested in developing IT special economic zones (SEZs) in private public partnership, reports the Financial Express. In such a venture, the government would own part of the land, to be reserved for small IT companies.

The commerce ministry has initiated a research to study how farmers are affected by special economic zones (SEZs), to ascertain whether the government should increase the land price while acquiring land for SEZs.

Initial studies showed that nearly Rs 20,000 crore ($4.5 billion) is generated from land around SEZs, which cover 62,000 hectares at present. The price of the land surrounding the SEZs is seen to increase dramatically in a short period of time. SEZs also generate 21.4 million jobs. The government also plans to refund all the tax related to SEZs and will also exempt its supplies from duty. X