Government allows cancellation of 4 SEZ projects

NEW DELHI: The government has given go-ahead for the cancellation of projects to four special economic zones (SEZ) developers including those of Broadway Integrated Park and Veritas Infrastructure Development.

The decision regarding this was taken in a meeting of the Board of Approval (BoA) on August 12, which was chaired by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.

"The board examined the four cases of cancellation of formal approval/notification and approved the cancellation," the minutes of the BoA meeting said.

However, it said that the cancellation is subject to the development commissioner furnishing a certificate in the prescribed format certifying that the developer has not availed any tax/duty benefits including service tax exemptions, if any, under SEZ Act/rules or has refunded any such benefits availed by it.

Muttha Realty and Broadway Integrated Park had planned to set up an IT/ITeS zones, while Veritas Infrastructure Development and Saloni Business Park had proposed to set up biotechnology park SEZ.

SEZs are exports hubs, which contribute about 16 per cent to the country's total outbound shipments.

The Commerce Ministry is taking steps to revive investors interest in these zones. It has asked the Finance Ministry to extend sops like rollback or reduction in the minimum alternate tax.

The 19-member BoA deals with SEZ related matters.

Exports from special economic zones (SEZs) logged a marginal growth of 0.77 per cent to Rs 4.67 lakh crore in 2015-16.

The exports from such 204 zones were Rs 4.63 lakh crore in 2014-15.

Highest number of SEZs are operational in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra.