14 new SEZs approved amidst rules to check misuse

New Delhi, Sep 21 (UNI) Approving 14 new proposals for setting up of the Special Economic Zones, mostly in the IT sector, the Board of Approvals in the Commerce Ministry today took on board the concerns about misuse of the SEZs and issued guidelines leaving very little scope of manouvering by the much-feared builder mafia.

With fresh approvals, the total number of SEZs approved goes to 164 while 25 of them have been notified, BoA Chairman and Special Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Gopal Pillai told reporters here.

Developers of the SEZs would be allowed to build social and physical infrastructure like housing, hospitals, hotels, retail malls, multiplexes, schools, telecom facilities - including internet connectivity, airports and even airports.

Despite concerns over the revenue loss to the exchequer, the tax concessions on all these social and physical infrastructure would be allowed, as provided in the SEZ legislation. ''Concerns over the revenue loss are misplaced since the incremental economic activity would more than make up for the tax incentives'', Mr Pillai said.

Fourteen new proposals approved in today's meeting includes a mega project from the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd for building a SEZ on 2086 hectare at Nagpur. Besides, DLF would build IT related zones in Gurgaon and Hyderabad. Real estate players- Parsvnath Developers would build IT zones at Dehradun and Indore while the Wellspun Group would promote a specialised textile zone in Gujarat.

In the sector-spefic SEZs, the maximum built up area of 50,000 square metre would be allowed for office space, multiplexes and retailing. A maximum number of 7,500 houses, 100-room hotel,25-bed hospital and schools not exceeding 25,000 sq metre would be allowed.

For the multi-product zone a maximum built up space of 2,00,000 sq metre would be allowed for office, multiplexes and retailing while the number of houses allowed would be 25,000. Besides 100 bed hospital and 250-room hotel would be allowed.

Mr Pillai clarified that while the houses would not be allowed to be resold, the owners can be given right to sub-lease the same.

As much as 65 per cent of the area would be left for social infrastructure like parks and recreation clubs leaving 35 per cent area for the processing activities. ''There would be very little space for manouvering'', he said.

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