Govt Calls Meet Of 6 States To Speed Up Sezs

KOLKATA: To hasten implementation of special economic zone (SEZ) projects, the Union commerce ministry has asked states to come up with a single-window clearance mechanism for SEZ project developers. Nearly every state government has been asked to set up a high-powered committee for SEZs and come up with a governance structure for SEZs.

As a first step, the commerce ministry has convened a meeting of state governments of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka to review the progress of relevant SEZs that have received formal clearances. These six states have collectively put in the maximum number of SEZ applications to the commerce ministry.

The commerce ministry directive to the states comes on the heels of Union commerce minister Kamal Nath’s recent announcement that there should be a coordinated effort by all stakeholders so that the SEZ scheme can fulfil its objectives. Incidentally, the single-window scheme gains more importance for multi-product SEZs, for which the developer has to seek clearances from various departments.

Commerce ministry officials told ET: “The Board of Approval (BoA) has formally approved 366 SEZs. We expect an investment of Rs 3,00,000 crore in these SEZs and an employment for 4 million people. The government is keen to see these things happen as fast as possible. The government wants to step up activities for SEZs which have received formal approval, before taking up fresh applications on October 19,” they added. The agenda for the meeting has not yet been fixed.

Incidentally, a section of developers has stressed the difficulties in setting up SEZs. An SEZ developer told ET: “The Centre has deputed development commissioners in various regions who are meant to coordinate with state governments. However, it’s not that simple, as the multiplicity of authorities and separate rules in states make the task difficult.

Sometimes, a single development commissioner has to look after a number of states. We strongly feel each state government should depute a competent authority at the development commissioner’s office to facilitate setting up of SEZs in the sate through single-window mechanism.”