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Our Bureau

Says Board of Approval will strictly follow the guidelines evolved

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New Delhi Jan. 19 The Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, on Friday strongly defended the Special Economic Zones in the face of mounting criticisms and said that the State governments perform "a proactive role in implementing the scheme."

Giving away the awards for excellence in exports to 100 per cent export-oriented units (EOUs) and units located in the special economic zones, organized by the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZ Units, the Minister said that in recent days concerns were voiced over the diversion of prime agricultural land for the SEZ purpose and the inadequate compensation and rehabilitation problems faced by the affected farmers.

He said the Board of Approval would be strictly following the guidelines evolved in the light of these concerns while considering fresh applications for SEZs.

The Minister said that establishment of SEZs would lead to faster growth of labour-intensive manufacturing and services.

In the next five years, if all the projects go on stream, investment by SEZ developers are likely to be over $60 billion or Rs 3 lakh crore.

By December 2007, he said, it is likely that investments of Rs 1,00,000 crore, including Rs 25,000 crore FDI, would be made in the SEZs.

On the issue of EOU, he said a major problem was removal of the sunset clause, which remains to be resolved. Mr Nath said that he was personally convinced that the sunset clause needs to be removed for providing continuity to this time-tested EOU scheme and assured exporters that he would take up the issue again.

He said EOU/SEZ sector has registered a growth of 78 per cent in the last three years.

Later, the Minister gave away awards for 36 exporters and prominent among them include Moser Baer India Ltd, Iflex Solutions Ltd, Mumbai; Voara Agro Food, Pune; Plastolene Polymers Pvt Ltd, Kolkata and Celetronics Mumbai.

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