SEZ investments

Sitharaman, inaugurating an industry event, says SEZ’s investment totalled Rs.406,690 crore.

Special economic zone (SEZ) investment totaled Rs.406,690 crore as at 30 September 2016, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Dec 5, 2016.

Approvals has been given to 405 proposals for setting up of SEZs in the country. Presently, out of 331 notified SEZs a total of 206 SEZs are operational.

She also highlighted various steps taken to strengthen SEZs in the country. These are:

Minimum Land Area requirement for setting up of new SEZs has been reduced to 50% for Multi-product and Sector-specific SEZs;

Sectoral broad-banding has been introduced to encompass similar/related areas under the same Sector;

A new sector ‘agro-based food processing’ sector has been introduced to encourage agro-based industries in SEZs;

Dual use of facilities like Social & Commercial infrastructure by SEZs and non-SEZs entities has been allowed in order to make SEZ operations more viable:

Online processing of various activities relating to SEZ Developers and Units has been introduced for improving ease of doing business;

She pointed out the principal objectives behind creating Special Economic Zone (SEZs) in the country. These include:

generation of additional economic activity;
promotion of exports of goods and services;

promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources;

creation of employment opportunities;

development of infrastructure facilities.

The existing SEZs have employs about 16.88 lakh persons, said Sitharaman. fii-news.com