The BJP government in Bengal will repeal the Urban Land Ceiling Act, ending a decades-old restriction on land holdings in a move aimed at boosting industrial investment and addressing a long-standing demand from businesses.
State finance minister Swapan Dasgupta said that the government has taken certain initiatives as part of the reform agenda.
“We are going to scrap the land ceiling act. It has been a recurrent demand for as long as I can remember,” Dasgupta said at a business conclave organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I).
Bengal is the only major state where ULCA still exists. The law restricts land holding up to 500 square metre in Calcutta and its surrounding areas, creating major bottleneck to take on large projects in a manner which is compliant with global standards. As a consequence, major international investors have largely stayed away from the city market, despite being active in other parts of the country.
In the state budget presented earlier this week, Dasgupta had said the ULCA will be ‘re-examined’ to unlock the potential of developed land, attract major investment and fuel economic growth.
The reform is part of the new government’s ambition to create an enabling environment, which is friendly towards enterprise, business and innovation, Dasgupta added.
Bengal industry minister Tapas Roy, who also spoke at the BCC&I event, echoed Dasgupta’s sentiment. “The Bengal government is working to improve the state’s investment climate by ensuring transparent policies, reducing the compliance burden, cutting procedural delays and providing a predictable regulatory framework for investors,” Roy said at the conclave.
The reform agenda, which also include faster clearances to large projects, retail boost by promoting a 24x7 economy, among others, is not at the cross-hairs with freebies distributed in the budget (larger dole for women or higher dearness allowance for state government employees), the FM argued.
While accepting that measures would strain the exchequer, Dasgupta argued the growth trajectory set out would enable the government to cover a lot of it.
“We are banking on growth. It’s a gamble,” Dasgupta said, adding that the Centre had helped Bengal ‘disproportionately’ and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the help. “But it (the help) was needed,” he said.
With the reforms announced and by enforcing a rule of law, Dasgupta argued that Bengal is again capturing the interest all over the country. “Bengal is back. And its back with a bang,” he claimed.