In a move that has significant implications for mega special economic zone (SEZ) promoters like Reliance, Posco, Ispat Industries, India Bulls and DLF, the commerce department is planning to speed up implementation of multi-product SEZs through its active intervention.
The department is also planning to go slow on approval of new
SEZ projects for promoters who have not implemented the projects already cleared. A review meeting has been organised for Friday to identify the problems faced by promoters in implementing multi-product SEZs.
“Implementation of large SEZs is a priority now, and we need to resolve the problems faced by them,” said top commerce department officials on condition of anonymity. A number of multi-product SEZs, including Mukesh Ambani’s projects in Haryana and Maharashtra, are facing obstacles such as roadblocks in land acquisition.
One large SEZ can easily outdo exports from a bunch of small SEZs, going to turnover of billions of dollars within a couple of years of implementation, officials feel. A number of other SEZ promoters, including those implementing projects like Mahindra Reality, Ansal Properties & Infrastructure, Omaxe, Videocon Realty Infrastructure and Parsvnath may also attend the meeting on Friday. The government wants to keep a close watch on the implementation of multi-product SEZs and the commerce department would act like a single window facilitating clearances, the sources said.
“If a company has three pending SEZ projects, it does not make sense to clear more projects of the company. Maybe they should be asked to implement two of the cleared projects and then approach the government for more approvals,” the officials said.
The final strategy on this count is still under discussion. Clearly, the mood in the com-merce department is not in favour of clearing a string of projects from a single company or a group if the track record in terms of implemen-tation is not good.
Source : The Economic Times