In its meeting
held in New Delhi today, the board of approvals for special economic zones has
recommended grant of 20 formal approvals and seven in-principle approvals. In
all 31 applications for setting up SEZs, which included conversion of four in-principle
approvals to formal approvals, were considered. Some prominent SEZ projects approved
today include: Formal
approvals granted: - Multi-services
SEZ by Gujarat Finance City Development Company Limited in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- Agro
and food processing SEZ by Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation Limited
in Dimapur, Nagaland
-
IT / ITeS SEZ by Tata Consultancy Services in Andhra Pradesh
-
IT / ITeS SEZ by Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited in Ranga
Reddy district, Andhra Pradesh
- Two
IT / ITeS SEZs by Andhra Pradesh Induistrial Investments Corporation in Kakinada
and Chittor in Andhra Pradesh
Conversion
of in-principle approval to formals - SEZ
by Alok Infrastructure Private Limited in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and
- Multi
product SEZ by Sterling Erection and Infrastructure Privated Limited in Bharuch,
Gujarat
In
principle approvals - Sector-specific
SEZ for providing products and related services for oil and gas, energy and petrochemicals
by Gujarat Hydrocarbon and Energy SEZ Limited in Gujarat
- Multi
product SEZ by Gitanjali Gems Limited in Nagpur, Maharashtra
So
far formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 366 SEZs out of which
142 have been notified. He said that over Rs46,705 crore have been invested in
these notified SEZs and that these SEZs are providing direct employment to over
40,153. In addition
to this, the 12 private / state government SEZs notified prior to coming into
force of SEZ Act, 2005 are providing direct employment to over 15,000 persons,
making the total employment provided by the new generation SEZs to over 55,000
persons. BOA
is a nodal authority, which clears the applications by companies for setting up
SEZ projects.There
are differences regarding the issue between the finance ministry and the commerce
ministry with the commerce ministry saying that there is no need for an export
obligation because anyway these SEZ export 95 per cent of their products. The
other issue which was pending for some months now is the whether loans to SEZ
sector qualify as loans to commercial real estate
also see : General
reports on Economy
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