Despite allegations of use of fertile land for industrial use and forcible acquisition of land from farmers by big corporations as well as frequent changes in policy, special economic zones (SEZs) in the country would attract an investment of over Rs 200,000-crore and provide employment to over 8 lakh people by 2009-end. The tax free zones have also increased their share in India?s total exports from just 4% in 2002-03 to 10.6% in 2007-08.
Giving these official data, commerce secretary GK Pillai said here that ?SEZs are here to stay and the government would ensure a stable SEZ policy even while fine-tuning the legislation to remove the bottlenecks.?
Pillai would hold a meeting with the state governments on September 1 to discuss outstanding issues including giving exemption from state and local taxes and levies as well as the USP of the SEZ policy, which is the single-window clearance mechanism to the developers and units under the respective State Act and Rules. Several states are yet to set up the single-window clearance mechanism, officials said, adding that a frame-work of single-window mechanism based onthe Gujarat model, has beenn circulated to the states.
Though state governments are expected to enact state-level SEZ Act and Rules consistent with the Central legislation to instill greater confidence amongst investors, many states are yet to bring into force these legislations, sources said, adding that only Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have enacted SEZ Act so far. Other issues that would bediscussed in the meeting include giving exemptions to SEZs from stamp duty and zero-rating of VAT.
According to official data, the Centre has so far given formal approval (to those SEZ proposals having procured the required land) to 513
SEZs and these cover a total area of 62, 590 hectares in 22 states. Until now, the notified SEZs are 250 in 18 states spanning 29,398 hectares. In terms of geographical coverage, while 44% of SEZs with formal approval are in southern India, western India has 31% and North and East comprise 19% and 6% respectively.
Maharashtra has 95 SEZs with formal approval, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 94, Tamil Nadu (60), Karnataka (48) and Gujarat (45). Among the states with maximum notified SEZs are Andhra Pradesh (56), Tamil Nadu (42), Maharashtra (35), Karnataka (23) and Gujarat (22).
IT/ITES/Electronic hardware/Semiconductor SEZs have the maximum number of formal approvals (322 of the total 513) and the maximum number of notified SEZs (165 of the 250). Multi-product SEZs with over 1,000 hectare have 21 formal approvals, and 52 in-principle approvals. Ten multi-product SEZs have been notified so far.