Ten more SEZs get nod

The UPA government, in its last meeting on its flagship special economic zones policy on Monday, cleared 10 more proposals for such tax-free zones, taking the total number of SEZs in the country, after the enforcement of SEZ Act and Rules, to 714.
The commerce ministry expects exports from SEZs to touch Rs 90,000 crore by this fiscal-end. Exports from SEZs in April-December 2008 have touched Rs 67,000 crore, which is more than the Rs 66,638 crore in the whole of 2007-08. “There is a little bit slowdown but we think we will cross Rs 90,000 crore,” commerce secretary GK Pillai said. SEZs approved by the Centre on Monday include Navi Mumbai gems and jewellery SEZ, promoted by an aide of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and L&T’s shipbuilding SEZ.
The board of approval (BoA) for SEZs, on Monday, also gave its approval for an application to merge three notified SEZs of the Adani group—4,846 hectare (Mundra Port SEZ I) and 1,074.17 hectare (Mundra Port SEZ II), as well as 293.88 hectare Adani Power SEZ – taking the total area of the combined zone to 6214.05 hectare. The total investment proposed for this SEZ is Rs 100,000 crore and the zone is expected to provide employment to 5 lakh people over the next 10 years.
This is the first time since April 2007—when an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) fixed the 5,000-hectare cap on the maximum area for a special economic zone (SEZ) following protests against forcible land acquisition for the zones – that the Centre has given the nod for a tax-free enclave to breach this cap. Earlier, the EGoM had given the green signal for the same application.