Time to process SEZ plans may come down

NEW DELHI: SEZs, the latest source of policy wrangling, have some good news. The ministry of home affairs (MHA), which is often blamed for inordinate delay in providing security clearance, has offered to limit the processing time for SEZ proposals referred to it to one month.

Security clearances are mandatory for SEZs coming up in locationally and sectorally-sensitive areas. The MHA is firm that the processing time for applications referred to it for security clearance cannot be less than a month as ���this is the minimum time needed by intelligence agencies to check the antecedents of the SEZ developers��� and their implications on national security.

���It is only after the reports from our intelligence agencies are in that we can take a view on whether or not to give the security go-ahead to the SEZ proposal... a month, in the home ministry���s opinion, is a reasonable time for the entire drill,��� said a senior MHA official. The MHA, however, has refused to tone down its stance that all SEZs coming under the purview of the term ���locationally- and sectorally-sensitive��� must have mandatory security clearance from the Union home ministry before being put up before the Board of Approval for SEZ headed by the commerce secretary.

Only last year, the government had discussed the implications of FDI on national security and the need to regulate foreign investment coming in from ���sensitive��� countries like Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and UAE or headed for ���strategic��� sectors like telecom, IT, shipping, aviation, petroleum and energy or ports.

Also, the need for mandatory security clearance for foreign investors wanting to locate their operations in states sensitive regions like J&K, north-east and Left-wing extremism-hit states, besides border and coastal states, was stressed by the security establishment. The same criteria is to be followed in case of SEZ proposals. Though the government is not keen to make the restrictions on FDI as ���country-specific���, it is clear about routing all proposals posing locational and sectoral threats through the MHA.At the same time, the MHA is amenable to suggestions for cutting down delays in processing SEZ applications for a security nod.