Developers of special economic zones troubled by ineffective functioning of the single-window clearance in several states may be able to breathe easy soon.
In a maiden meeting held by the Centre to thoroughly discuss issues related to SEZs with various states, the Centre would come with norms out within a month to effectively operationalise this mechanism to ensure speedy clearance of various regulatory aspects from a single authority.
?The single-window clearance concept is already there in the SEZ Act and policy. But it only mentions that the states shall endeavour to effectively implement these. However, guidelines would have specific time-frame of giving clearance for the developer, pointing out the authorities the developer has to approach for this,? an official told FE.
Currently, the units in the SEZs have the unit approval committee under the development commissioner to take care of the single-window clearance mechanism.But developers are facing problems due to ineffective functioning of the single-window clearance. Only Gujarat, which has its own SEZ legislation for smooth implementation of the Central policy, stands out as there were hardly any complaints. Developers in other states, however, are not too happy with the single-window clearance mechanism as they feel it exists only on paper, an official said.
Among other issues discussed were the stamp duty imposed by some states on developers despite exemption provided under the SEZ Act and the Stamp Act.
The commerce ministry wants states to ensure that developers having approval in principle are exempted from the stamp duty for initial land acquisition and subsequent activities. The meeting also discussed the opposition of several states in giving tax exemption in SEZs? non-processing area.
The commerce ministry pitched for exemption from value-added tax and other state-level taxes levied on goods sold from domestic tariff area to both processing and non-processing areas.