Requirements on minimum size, contiguity and vacant stretches to be eased; MAT and DDT to stay
Domestic institutional investors pumped Rs 2.3 trillion into equities during H1 CY24. Of this, mutual funds contributed 80%.
Benchmark Sensex dropped 334 points on Monday due to intense selling pressure in metal and power stocks as FII outflows dampened investor sentiment. Besides, a sharp decline in the rupee against the US dollar also put pressure on domestic equities, traders said. After losing nearly 500 points, the 30-share BSE index recovered some lost ground to settle at 334.98 points or 0.55 per cent lower at 60,506.90. During the session, the index touched its intra-day low of 60,345.61.
The board formally approved 10 SEZs, including a 16 hectare IT zone of Tata Consultancy Services in Kolkata, Saloni Business Park Private Ltd's 27.5 hectare biotech zone in Thane and a 4.77 hectare electronic hardware and IT zone in Raigad, proposed by Modern India Property Developer.
The government will next week consider requests from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group firms and other companies for extension of validity for their different special economic zones.
According to the SEZ Act, 2005, there is no upper limit for land acquisition by state governments. It also allows acquisition of wasteland and single-crop land, putting negative impact on common property resources like land, forest and water bodies.
Out of 389 SEZs notified, 170 are operational, Export Promotion Council for export-oriented units and special economic zones (EPCES) said in a statement.
The opposition questioned the earmarking of a substantial 60,000 hectares of land for these zones, saying it was far beyond the necessity. Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) said half of the land was being handed out to non-processing zones, which the country's "land sharks" were acquiring with imputiny to set up hotels, restaurants and malls.
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday asked India to "very carefully" look at the much-touted Special Economic Zones, saying the giveaways and tax sops to the zones could divert industrial activity from the rest of the country.
The Bill has proposed that zones notified by the end of March 2012, will get income tax benefits. For units, there is a two-year additional window, with those commencing operations by March 31, 2014, likely to get an exemption.
The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act of 2005, which completed two years on February 10, 2008, has facilitated a 200 per cent rise in exports from these zones during the period, and has led to an incremental investment of Rs 70,416 crore (Rs 704.16 billion).
The Environment Ministry on Thursday issued a show cause notice to Mundra Port & SEZ Limited, a private port and special economic zone being developed on the west coast of the country, for alleged violation of the provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification.
A key meeting of senior United Progressive Alliance government ministers and political parties, including the Congress and its Left allies, failed to secure a political consensus on the showpiece Special Economic Zones initiative.
As per the SEZ Act, 2005, and SEZ Rules, 2006, SEZ units are entitled to exemption from duty of customs and excise, exemption from service tax and VAT, exemption from stamp duty and registration fees and exemption from electricity duty, besides income tax exemption on export profits.
Adani group companies have reported a 13.7 per cent rise in cash reserve to Rs 45,895 crore in the first half of the current fiscal as earnings across the business rose while debt was almost unchanged. In the half-year credit performance report, Adani said while EBITDA rose to Rs 71,253 crore in April-September this fiscal from Rs 57,219 crore a year back, gross assets increased 6 per cent to about Rs 4.5 lakh crore. Gross debt was almost unchanged at Rs 2.26 lakh crore, but after considering cash reserves, the net debt at Rs 1.80 lakh crore was 3.6 per cent less than Rs 1.87 lakh crore in April-September 2022.
The extent of disillusionment can be gauged from the fact that even tax sops for units in the SEZs could not help revive the dampening spirit. The year has seen a change in the sentiment, which has turned for the worse in the last three-four months. Scores of big corporate houses were making a beeline for developing special economic zones, billed as the new investment destination that assured tax-free income.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Wednesday said it has decided to exit its investment in Myanmar by June next year. APSEZ, the largest port developer in India, is part of the globally diversified Adani Group. "The Board has decided to actively work on a plan on exiting Company's investment in Myanmar including divestment opportunities (expected to be concluded by March - June 2022)," APSEZ said in notes to its second quarter results.
Three special economic zones promoted by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and his close aide Anand Jain in the same area have been listed for clearance on Friday.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd on Thursday announced its plans to set up a special economic zone at Jaipur entailing an investment of $2 billion.
The Board of Approvals on Wednesday gave final clearance to 15 Special Economic Zones but deferred a decision on the Navi Mumbai zone promoted by Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and Anand Jain.
The Reliance Industries special economic zone at Jamnagar in Gujarat, which had been given a sector-specific status (petroleum and petro-chemicals) earlier, was today modified to a multi-product zone by the board of approval, which met in New Delhi.
The trouble is, in backward areas where infrastructure is weak, the impact of SEZ on access to water would be even more serious.
Land acquisition for special economic zones is stuck because of a year-old directive by the Empowered Group of Ministers that bars state governments from carrying out compulsory acquisition of land for the zones.
The government on Wednesday granted approval to Nokia, Wipro, Hewlett Packard, Reliance, Biocon, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Mahindra and Mahindra, Reliance energy and Adani Group's to set up Special Economic zones.
Commerce ministry will issue notices to 57 formally approved SEZs. If the notices are not replied to, the approvals will stand cancelled.
The officials also said that the ministry of commerce and industry had recommended the Maharashtra government to take back the land acquisition notification that it had issued. The zone has been given in-principle approval by the BoA, as RIL is yet to acquire the requisite land.
The proposal was mooted by the department of industrial policy and promotion in the ministry of commerce and industry.
Even as Left parties have demanded a review of the tax concessions provided to SEZs, the DoT has sought extension of excise duty exemptions to industrial units set up in telecom-specific SEZs.
The government has issued fresh guidelines allowing a power plant the fiscal exemptions of the Special Economic Zone if it is set up in the 'processing' area of the tax-free zone.
Seeking a faster roadmap for Special Economic Zones, Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitely said on Wednesday that the process of getting the zones ready should not face roadblocks.\n\n\n\n
Real estate developer K Raheja Universal Private Ltd wants to scrap one of their notified special economic zones and also surrender a part of another zone, citing lack of demand from the information technology sector.
While most other big companies like Tata, Mahindra and Reliance remain non-committal on FDI, Nikhil Gandhi was the lone voice supporting 51 per cent FDI through the automatic route.
The next six months may see the Centre notifying 100 special economic zones.
Reflecting the enthusiasm among private companies for setting up special economic zones, the board of approval for SEZs will consider over 100 proposals on March 17 - its first meeting since the implementation of SEZ Act and Rules last month.
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
For tapping high growth units in special economic zones, a host of Indian banks had established offshore banking units in 2003-04 in these duty free enclaves
Even in the midst of a liquidity crunch, Special Economic Zones still remain a lucrative investment option among developers. The government on Monday cleared 22 of these tax-free industrial enclaves.
