Approval board for SEZs to meet on June 7

The Board of Approval for Special Economic Zones, headed by Commerce Secretary S R Rao, will meet on June 7 to discuss issues related to the setting up of SEZs in the country.

"The 58th meeting of the Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZs have been scheduled on June 7," the Commerce Ministry said.

Development commissioners have been asked to forward the proposals regarding SEZs along with their comments at the earliest so that they could be placed before the meeting.

At its last meeting on March 15, the board gave extra time to 14 SEZ developers, including Cognizant Technology Solutions and Parsvnath SEZ Ltd, to execute their projects.

The 19-member inter-ministerial board had also approved the de-notification of three tax free enclaves.

Last month, the government unveiled a package of reforms, including easing of land norms to revive investments in SEZs.

The package includes reducing the Minimum Land Area Requirement by half for different categories of SEZs, an exit policy by allowing transfer of ownership of SEZ units including sale and doing away with minimum land requirement criteria for IT/ITES zones.

SEZ, once an attraction for investors, lost the sheen following imposition of MAT and DDT, certain provisions in the proposed direct tax regime (DTC) as well as global slowdown.

The 170 functional SEZs have attracted investment of over Rs 2.36 lakh crore and exports from them totalled Rs 4.76 lakh crore in 2012-13.