Special Investment Regions to include manufacturing, IT

New Delhi, Jun 23 (UNI) Government today said its ambitious Special Investment Regions (SIRs),subsuming the Special Economic Zones, will extend to the Manufacturing and Information Technology sectors, apart from Petroleum and Petrochemical projects, as announced earlier.

Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar, who has returned from the US after making presentations to the CEOs of potential global investors, said the draft policy on the SIRs is ready. '' But we thought we should seek investors' inputs before putting it before the Cabinet'', Mr Kumar said.

Originally, the inter-ministerial Task Force headed by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, T K Nair, had proposed the SIRs for the petroleum and petrochemical sectors. To be known as the Petroleum and Petrochemical Investment Regions(PPCIRs), these delineated areas were meant to attract mega investment in sprawling areas of 250 square kilometers.

''We wanted to give scales to investors'', Mr Kumar said. The minister led a delegation of senior officials from the Centre and the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab.

While the Chief Secretaries of the four coastal States made presentations about the proposed PPCIRs, the Punjab officials are pitching for a SIR on Manufacturing.

Mr Kumar said units in the SIRs would have all fiscal incentives which are given to the firms in the SEZs. He said, wherever needed, the legislative measures would be taken to support the fiscal incentives.

Asked about the opposition from the Finance Ministry on the fiscal incentives, the Industry Minister said since the idea has been initiated by the PMO-led Task Force, Finance Minister P Chidambaram is in the know of things.

In the US, Mr Kumar made presentations about the PPCIRs and the SIRs for Manufacturing and IT to top American and European CEOs. The CEOs from the petroleum and petrochemicals were from BASF, Exxon Mobil, Royal DSP, Rohn and Haas, BP, Dow Chemicals, WR Grace etc.

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