Mumbai:
The government has decided not to give in-principle approval
for special economic zones in the information technology
sector, commerce secretary G K Pillai said. He said the
board of approvals for SEZ in the commerce ministry has
so far given formal clearance to 148 SEZs and in-principle
approval to about 70 more in the IT sector.
"We
have decided not to give in-principle approvals for IT
SEZs. No cap is being put... If any company comes with
land already acquired we will give a formal approval,"
he told participants at an Assocham seminar.
He
said the ministry would modify the SEZ rules to simplify
procedures. There was no need for an amendment of the
SEZ Act, as was demanded by opposition parties. He also
ruled out putting a cap on the number of SEZs in other
sectors such as textiles or even multi-product zones.
Of
all the approvals that have come in for SEZs, half of
them are for IT SEZs. The commerce secretary said the
BoA is of the opinion that no more in-principle approvals
should be given for IT SEZs for the time being.
The
left parties and even the finance ministry have been expressing
concerns on the number of IT SEZs that have been coming
up in the country.
The
companies that have already been given approvals to set-up
IT SEZs would not be affected, but companies that want
to set-up new SEZs might not get approvals for sometime
now, he said .
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