'Don't grant EoU status to RIL refinery'

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Wednesday asked the government not to grant export-oriented unit status to Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, but said he was not an emissary of Anil Ambani.
   
"The domestic refinery was overnight converted into an SEZ (sic) by a designated authority... on the one hand, government is short of revenue and is raising money through bonds, but (on the other, it is) giving tax advantages," he said after meeting Finance Minister P Chidambaram here.
   
He said he would take up the issue of giving special status to RIL at the coordination committee meeting of the Samajwadi Party and the UPA on October 14. The SP now props up the UPA, after its Left allies withdrew support in July.
   
Singh, however, was quick to add that he was "not batting for Anil Ambani," the younger brother of Mukesh. The siblings fell apart in 2005 and divided the Reliance business empire founded by their father Dhirubhai Ambani between themselves.
   
"Views of the Finance Minister are well known on SEZ policy and I should not say anything on this," Singh said when asked what assurance was given to him by Chidambaram.
   
The revenue department has all along had reservations on revenue loss because of tax exemptions granted to SEZs and EoUs.