SEZ body says denotification fine if duty benefits refunded

CHANDIGARH: The Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs on Friday said cash-starved realty major DLF should be allowed to denotify its special economic zones if the developer is willing to refund the duty-free benefits claimed, even as the Government will take the final call on the matter on June 2.

"In my opinion in such cases (DLF), we should not have any issue in de-notification...If the SEZ developer is willing to refund the entire duty-free benefits to the Government... because whatever duty was foregone by the Government would be recovered from the developer," the council's Director-General L B Singhal said on the sidelines of a PHDCCI seminar here.

DLF has sought the denotification of four of its IT/ITeS SEZs that were to come up in Haryana, Gujarat, Orissa and Kolkata, due to slowdown in the economy and liquidity crunch in the overall industry.

The decision on the denotification would be taken on the June 2 meeting of the Board of Approval (BoA) in the Commerce Ministry.

Singhal further said, "If no activity has taken place from the developer's side and no duty-free benefits have been claimed by the SEZ developer, in that case too, we should not have any issue in denotification."

He, however, added that the final decision lies with the BoA.