Employees of SEZ units may be allowed 100% work from home: Piyush Goyal

The government is thinking of permitting all employees of units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to work from home (WFH), commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

At present, WFH is permitted for a maximum period of one year in an SEZ unit and can be extended to 50% of the total employees.

"We had permitted work from home in SEZ units during Covid-19 times. It was appreciated by all, and it also helped in pushing our services exports, which were $254 billion last year. This year also there will be a jump in that," Goyal said after the Board of Trade meeting.

The commerce department has notified Rule 43A for WFH in the SEZ Rules, 2006, which provides WFH for a certain category of employees of a unit within an SEZ.

These include employees of IT/ITeS SEZ units, employees who are temporarily incapacitated, or are travelling or are working offsite.

The government has already begun the process of replacing the SEZ Act with the Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs (DESH) legislation.

Goyal said the government had received requests from stakeholders saying Covid-19 related restrictions at several places across the globe were still in place and all employees are not coming to offices.

Noting that WFH can help create job opportunities in small cities like Rajkot and Una, Goyal said: "It is in the interest of the country to allow work from home" and that it would be for all sectors in SEZs.

Logistics Policy
Goyal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would unveil the national logistics policy on September 17. The policy is aimed at promoting seamless movement of goods across the country. It is expected to focus on several areas such as process re-engineering, digitisation, and multi-modal transport.