labels: industry - general, economy - general, it news
Government to go slow on approval of new IT SEZsnews
08 November 2006

Mumbai: The government has decided not to give in-principle approval for special economic zones in the information technology sector, commerce secretary G K Pillai said. He said the board of approvals for SEZ in the commerce ministry has so far given formal clearance to 148 SEZs and in-principle approval to about 70 more in the IT sector.

"We have decided not to give in-principle approvals for IT SEZs. No cap is being put... If any company comes with land already acquired we will give a formal approval," he told participants at an Assocham seminar.

He said the ministry would modify the SEZ rules to simplify procedures. There was no need for an amendment of the SEZ Act, as was demanded by opposition parties. He also ruled out putting a cap on the number of SEZs in other sectors such as textiles or even multi-product zones.

Of all the approvals that have come in for SEZs, half of them are for IT SEZs. The commerce secretary said the BoA is of the opinion that no more in-principle approvals should be given for IT SEZs for the time being.

The left parties and even the finance ministry have been expressing concerns on the number of IT SEZs that have been coming up in the country.

The companies that have already been given approvals to set-up IT SEZs would not be affected, but companies that want to set-up new SEZs might not get approvals for sometime now, he said .


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Government to go slow on approval of new IT SEZs