• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Aug 23

The empowered Group of Ministers on Special Economic Zones, headed by the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, decided on Wednesday to remove the existing cap on the number of SEZs that can be established within the country.

Emerging from the meeting, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, told the media that there would be no cap on the number of SEZs. Until now, the Government had placed a cap of 150 for the number of SEZs that could be established within the country.

Besides the Commerce Minister the e-GoM includes the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The Minister added that approvals for new SEZs would resume only after 75 SEZs were made operational. He also ruled out any re-look at the SEZ policy as demanded by the Left parties. Mr Kamal Nath also maintained that the revenue loss to the Government, if any, due to SEZs could be ascertained only when they were functional. The Minister added that the onus of land acquisition was with the State government.

As of now the board of approvals had given in-principle nod for 150 SEZs. Beyond this limit the BoA has received several new applications for establishing SEZs in the country. In this scenario the e-GoM's intervention was sought to give directions to the BoA .

Related Stories:
EGoM on special economic zones to meet today
45 SEZ proposals formally cleared
`Infrastructure will see investment of Rs 3,20,000 cr in the next 6 years'

More Stories on : Infrastructure | Policy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Signals point to weakening trend in monsoon

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line