Pondy govt to promote SEZs to boost industrial growth

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Chennai, Aug 11 : The government of Puducherry will promote Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to facilitate industrial growth, exports and employment generation, according to V Vaithilingam, minister for industries & power, government of Puducherry.

He told the regional council members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Puducherry that the Territorial government would take positive steps to enhance industrial development in the region. The government would encourage power projects in the non-conventional energy sectors to improve power generation and allow import of LNG through Karikal port to facilitate private sector investment in clean energy projects.

He also said that Puducherry will emerge as a hub for medical tourism, healthcare, biotechnology and related sectors.

Lalit B Singhal, director general, Export Promotion Council for EOUs & SEZ Units, Union ministry of commerce, said that all the State governments should take a proactive approach to enact SEZ Acts and provide exemption from all State and local levies.

“The State governments need to provide single window mechanism for clearance to SEZ units/developers,” he said.

M Singhal said at present 41 SEZs were in operation in the country. Formal approval was given for 462 SEZs, out of which 222 was notified . Investment made in new notified SEZs was worth Rs 69,350 crore and employment generated was for 3,36,235 persons.

Expected investment if the 462 SEZs were to become operational would be Rs 3,00,000 crore. They would employ over 4 million people.

He said exports in 2007-08 was worth Rs 66,638 crore ($17 billion), a growth of 92% from over Rs 34,787 crore in 2006-07. The expected exports in 2008-09 were Rs 1,25,000 crore.

Singhal said that certain important issues relating to SEZs like service tax, interpretation of Section 10AA of IT Act, power guidelines, steel duty on supplies to SEZs etc need to be resolved .

Sunil Kant Munjal, past president, CII & chairman, Hero Corporate Services Ltd said that India has the potential to achieve 10-12% GDP growth. “To realize this potential, there needs to be sharp focus on education, skills development with focus on vocational training,” he added.

Another big wave in the economic development was through the value creation in farm production, he said and added that enhancing agricultural productivity would contribute to the overall growth of the country.