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Ministers' meet on SEZs on Wed

May 09, 2006 17:16 IST

The Empowered Group of Ministers to examine the minimum area required for setting up Special Economic Zones is likely to hold its first meeting on Wednesday.

The EGoM meeting, which has earlier been deferred twice, is scheduled to be held on May 10, official sources said.

The ministerial group, headed by defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, to review the land size issue was set up in March but has not been able to meet till now due to unavailability of ministers in the face of ongoing elections in states.

While it was first scheduled to meet on April 5 and then later in the month, it was postponed both times.

The EGoM was set up after sharp differences arose between the ministries of commerce and finance over the minimum area required for setting up SEZs.

The other members of the group include finance minister P Chidambaram, commerce minister Kamal Nath, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal, law minister H R Bharadwaj, telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The BoA had recently cleared proposals for setting up 148 SEZs, of which some are less than 25 hectares, but these have not been notified.

While the finance ministry feels that the minimum area should be 25 hectare to check revenue leakage, the commerce ministry has pointed out that this cannot prevent revenue leakage.

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