Government gives nod to set up 4 SEZs

The government has given approval to set up four new special economic zones including that of Infosys Ltd and Cognizant Technologies Services in the IT sector.

These SEZs were given approval by the Board of Approval (BoA), chaired by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, in its meeting on February 23.

Cognizant Technologies Services Pvt Ltd has proposed to set up IT/ITeS zone at Ranga Reddy District in Telangana. It is planned at over an area of 2.51 hectares.

Infosys Ltd too proposed to set up sector specific SEZ for IT/ITeS in Mohali over an area of 20.23 hectares.

Saltire Developers and Amin properties LLP have got "formal approval" by the board to set up IT/ITeS zones in Bangalore.

Further the BoA has given extra time to as many as 12 SEZ developers and units to implement their projects.

Kandla Port Trust, developer of multi product SEZ at Kandla, in Gujarat got one year extra till May 6, 2017 to execute its project. G P Realtors Pvt Ltd too got an extra one year till January 25, 2017 to implements it IT/ITeS zone in Haryana, the minutes of the BoA meeting said.

In the Budget 2016-17, the government has extended the tax benefits to those SEZ units, which will commence commercial activity before March 31, 2020.

The move was aimed at prompting such units to expeditiously complete their projects and begin operations.

However, the industry's apex body EPCES has expressed disappointment over the Budget proposals and has again asked the government to look at removing or reducing minimum alternate tax as it is impacting the growth of these zones.

During April-September, exports from these zones stood at Rs 2.21 lakh crore as against Rs 4.63 lakh crore in 2014-15.

The SEZs enjoy 100% income tax exemption on export income for the first five years, 50% for the next five years thereafter and 50% of the ploughed back export profit for another five years.

About 500 proposals for SEZs have been formally approved by the government, out of which over 200 are operational.