No final view yet on SEZs

Special Correspondent
The Hindu, 23 January

NEW DELHI: The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on special economic zones (SEZs), headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Monday failed to arrive at a final view on the controversial issues of land acquisition, rehabilitation and misuse of tax concessions.

Thus, the fate of over 340 SEZs, which have been approved but not notified, remains uncertain.

The EGoM would soon meet again, Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath told journalists. Pending a final view by it, no fresh proposal would be taken up by the inter-Ministerial Board of Approvals (BoA).

According to Ministry sources, the decision of the EGoM would not be applicable to the 63 SEZs which have already been notified. Besides the over 340 SEZ proposals, there are about 300 applications pending BoA clearance.

Mr. Kamal Nath pointed out that as the EGoM Chairman had to leave for another meeting, final views on various issues could not be firmed up.

Apart from Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Kamal Nath, the members are P. Chidambaram (Finance), Sharad Pawar (Agriculture) and Dayanidhi Maran (IT and Communications.)

Mr. Kamal Nath said the land acquisition issue was not confined to SEZs and extended to all other industrial projects. "Details have been sought from the State Governments on land that is being acquired for various purposes and before that no approvals can be given."