Haryana okays RIL's quitting SEZ; to give Rs 343 cr for land

Haryana government today approved Reliance Industries' proposal to opt out of SEZ in Gurgaon and said it will reimburse Rs 343 crore to it, lower than Rs 1,172 crore demanded by the company, for taking back the land.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda told reporters here that the proposal of RIL was approved by the state Cabinet at its meeting here.
Mukesh Ambani led RIL had sought the reversal of 1,383.68 acres -- from Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd (RHSL) to the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) -- saying that the project had become unviable.
An official release said the SEZ Project at Gurgaon had "been rendered economically unviable due to the mid-term corrections in the SEZ Policy viz. Imposition of the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), withdrawal of the Tax holiday, slowdown in the global economy, prohibitively high prices of land and other problems associated with aggregation of land through private negotiations".

Sensing the difficulties posed in this behalf, the Chief Minister had requested Reliance to return the HSIIDC land, it said.
The release added: "As such, RHSL offered to return the HSIIDC land and abandon the SEZ project in Gurgaon vide their letter of January 2012.

"RHSL had requested for refund of the amount paid by them to the HSIIDC and re-imbursement of expenditure incurred on the site, apart from interest on the said amount aggregating to Rs. 1,172 crore."
The proposal was considered at the level of the Haryana Investment Promotion Board, headed by the Chief Minister, after examining all the legal aspects of the Joint Venture Agreement, it said, adding that HIPB recommended acceptance of the return offer strictly in accordance with the provisions of the JV agreement.

The release said: "Accordingly, the Haryana Cabinet today approved the return of the land to HSIIDC, in lieu of payment of an amount of Rs 343.51 crore to RHSL as against Rs 399.85 crore paid by RHSL at the time of transfer of land and the demand of Rs 1,172 crore by RHSL.
"The claims on account of Administrative charges forming price of the subject, refund of the Stamp Duty, re-imbursement of development expenditure and interest amount have not been accepted. The refund amount has been worked out strictly as per the terms of the Joint Venture Agreement date 19th June 2006 signed between the HSIIDC and RVL.