BoA clears de-notification of 81 SEZs

The highest decision making body on special economic zones - Board of Approval (BoA) has approved 81 cases of de-notification of SEZs, Parliament was informed today.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the reasons given for de-notification include economic slowdown, poor market response, lack of demand for SEZ space and change in the fiscal incentive regime for these zones.
"As on 30th June, on the request of the SEZ developers, the BoA has approved 81 cases of de-notification of SEZs subject to the refund of all duties and tax benefits availed by the SEZ developer and on receipt of no-objection from the concerned state government," she said.

She also said that the Department of Commerce had advised all states to ensure that de-notified land of SEZs would be utilised towards creation of infrastructure.
In a separate reply, she said total exports from SEZs were Rs 4.67 lakh crore in 2015-2016, which increased to Rs 5.23 lakh crore in 2016-17.
"There has been an increase of 12.05 per cent in the total exports from SEZs during 2016-17 in comparison to the previous year," she added.

In a separate reply, the minister said representations have been received from exporters/growers associations regarding alleged import of low quality pesticide contaminated pepper from Vietnam through Sri Lanka.

On analysis of the data of import and production of pepper in Sri Lanka in the last three years, it is observed that the quantum of total import of pepper in Sri Lanka was very small as compared to the production of pepper as well as the quantum of exports from Sri Lanka to India.
"Therefore, there is little possibility of Vietnamese pepper being imported to India, through Sri Lanka," she said.
The matter was examined and necessary directions were issued to Central Board of Excise and Customs and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for taking suitable measures like strict verification of Certificates of Origin and further to check the possibility of contaminated Vietnamese pepper being imported into India, she added.