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Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, has indicated that the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) bill, which has been referred to the Group of Ministers by the Cabinet, will come up before the budget session of Parliament next month. Speaking to a television channel on the sidelines of the first meeting of the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) here today, he expressed the hope that the bill would be passed in the next session so as to provide a stable policy framework for SEZs, which was vital for attracting investment in the SEZs including foreign direct investment (FDI) on a scale that was required to make the scheme a success.
The government’s proposal to enact a legislation for SEZs is intended to give stability to the SEZ policy regime and covers all aspects of establishment, operation and fiscal regime.
Meanwhile, the number of SEZs approved so far for establishment come to 36 including the 3 proposals cleared recently for the establishment of SEZ by WIPRO Ltd., for software development and IT enabled services at Salt Lake Electronic City, Kolkata and two other sector-specific SEZs for Information Technology and Automobiles and Auto Parts respectively at Sedarpet – Karasur (Pondicherry) by the Government of Pondicherry. One SEZ for information technology, including bio-informatics, has also recently been approved for establishment at Mahindra City near Chennai on the basis of proposal received from M/s. Mahindra Industrial Park Limited.
The 8 SEZs at Kandla and Surat (Gujarat), Santa Cruz (Maharashtra), Cochin (Kerala), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Falta (West Bengal) and Noida (UP) converted from Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are fully operational.
SB/MRS
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