Centre okays 237 Special Economic Zones

New Delhi, Dec 3: As many as 237 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have received the official nod with Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh cornering the lion's share.

Maharashtra leads among the states with 48 SEZ proposals getting Central clearance, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 45 projects, indicating the states' eagerness to go the SEZ way.

The southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also appear gung ho about the process and have cornered 29 and 25 SEZS respectively, official figures here show.

Despite frequently expressed misgivings from various quarters, the states are on land-acquisition spree for setting up these special zones. Land being a state subject, the Centre is granting approvals for SEZ based on the recommendations of the state government concerned.

According to Commerce Ministry sources, the states have been advised that while acquiring land for SEZs, "if a portion of double cropped agricultural land has to be acquired to meet the minimum area requirements, especially for multi-product SEZs, the land so acquired should not exceed 10 per cent of the total land required for the zone." The Centre is chary of giving clearance to any SEZ proposal which will gobble up prime agricultural land and provokes opposition from the farmers, the sources said.

According to Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, SEZs are expected to boost employment, raise incomes, and allow Indian businesses to integrate more actively with global economy. To encourage establishment of SEZs, tax benefits for manufacturing and services export are being offered.

In addition, there is increasing clamour from the states to be allowed to have flexible labour laws for these designated areas.

Under the SEZ policy, states can delegate the power of the Labour Commissioner to the Development Commissioner of SEZ and declare the zone a public utility. This is to bypass the present labour laws which are also applicable to SEZs.

Although the government is keen to introduce labour reforms in SEZs, the Left parties see it as bringing in the "hire and fire" policy through the back door and is openly opposed to it.

Impressed by Communist China's success story due to its flexible labour laws, states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, however, are demanding labour reforms in SEZs to bag big-ticket investments.

UNI