Expressing serious concerns over the DTC Bill, SEZ entrepreneurs on Tuesday said the proposed tax provisions would hit employment and drive away investors from the special economic zones.
IT companies would be entitled to the same tax benefits as SEZ developers.
Merchandise exports from 143 operational SEZs totalled Rs 72,255 crore (Rs 722.55 billion) in the April-June period.
The Kerala government has not excluded the industrial units situated in special economic zones from labour laws, State labour minister P K Gurudasan told the Assembly on Thursday. He was replying to a calling attention motion on the difficulties experienced by the employees of new generation banks, IT sector and private insurance and financial institutions functioning in the state due to non-compliance of labour laws by the respective units.
The Board of approval in the commerce ministry took these decisions along with approving two fresh proposals of Shyam Steel Industries and Limitless Properties in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, respectively. The BoA also ratified extension of time to 23 developers, including Satyam Computer Services, for implementing tax-free enclaves in the wake of economic slowdown.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley exhorted US businessmen to focus their attention on India, as it had an attractive foreign direct investment regime.\n\n\n\n
While company executives refused to divulge further details, industry sources said that Reliance has earmarked a huge area in the SEZ for the project.
The government is preparing a draft policy for special investment regions that would be spread over an area of hundreds of kilometres and offer investors all the infrastructure for setting up manufacturing units.
The ruling came after Maha Mumbai SEZ Sangharsh Samiti, a local organisation opposing the SEZ, on Friday informed the high court that a public interest litigation relating to the project is pending before the Supreme Court.
Plans for SEZ, logistics and coffee chain, among other segments
The government said on Wednesday more than 200 applications for setting up special economic zones are pending with it.
Demand for special economic zones (SEZs) appears to be reviving even as realty developers are shying away from developing these tax-free enclaves due to liquidity crunch, according to experts who are tracking SEZs.
Nandigram remained in headlines throughout the year despite the West Bengal government cancelling the SEZ project of Indonesia's Salem Group in January following violence and political pressure on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Nasdaq-listed Infosys has said it was the failure of the state government in fulfilling the agreed conditions that led to the delay in executing its 448-acre IT Special Economic Zone project in Hyderabad.
Adani says size of the balance sheet of the company will double after the acquisition.
West Bengal is having a rerun of the Nano episode, but this time it doesn't want the lead actors to exit the stage prematurely. The government is ready for whatever manoeuvres it takes to retain Infosys and Wipro projects in the state.
When asked what the Infosys stand will be, Binod Hampapur, senior vice-president and global head of commercial and corporate relations at Infosys, said that the company will wait for the letter before the company makes any comment.
The BoA also allowed three developers, including Unitech Infopark, to surrender their SEZs, he said, adding they would have to pay back the tax concessions availed while executing the projects and other pending dues.
IT, IT-hardware, petroleum, engineering, leather and garments are the leading exports from the SEZs.
Last week, the 20-hectare zone had got embroiled in a controversy amid reports that the state government was taking back the land. This was after allegations that the land was allotted in an unfair manner. But Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy said the government would not cancel the allocation as the company was "sound."
Reliance Communications has received approvals from Maharashtra and MIDC for its proposed 45-acre special economic zone.
It is also stipulated that these units cannot under any circumstances source items locally for export purpose.
Finance Minister has proposed to levy MAT of 18.5 per cent on the book profits of Special Economic Zone developers and units.
What is really at stake is the future of the local economy and its place in the larger picture.
Excise duty on formulations has increased from 4 per cent to 5 per cent.
Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market capitalisation, today commissioned its second refinery in a special economic zone (SEZ) at Jamnagar, adjacent to its existing facility, in Gujarat that will add 20 per cent to India's total crude oil refining capacity.
The government is expected to end the benefits under Section 10A and 10B of the Income Tax Act.
RPL, a unit of Reliance Industries, had sought nod to export the entire liquefied petroleum gas production in the six months to fully commissioning its 580,000-barrels per day refinery in the Jamnagar special economic zone. RPL, in which US energy major Chevron Corp has 5 per cent stake, is likely to start producing fuel from the unit being set up adjacent to parent firm's existing 660,000 bpd refinery at Jamnagar in the next few weeks.
Nasscom president Kiran Karnik on Wednesday suggested the government should allow establishment of private higher and technical educational institutions on the lines special economic zones to provide quality education in the country.
Mahindra Satyam has approached the Commerce Ministry for more time to develop the three IT Special Economic Zones in Andhra Pradesh as it has decided to go slow on its expansion plans due to the slowdown.
Cabinet nod not required after commerce ministry approval.
IT major Wipro has proposed to establish a software economic zone in Kolkata, according to a top government official.
Rentals for commercial complexes fell sharply and the land, developers felt, could be employed for other purposes.
Government officials said the company was likely to invest about Rs 2,000 crore during the first phase of the project. In all, it could be Rs 7,000-10,000 crore.
Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, will invest Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) in setting up an information technology Special Economic Zone at Taramani, Chennai. The project will have both commercial and residential projects.
Dubai-based Tecom, promoter of the Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) Kochi Smart city IT infrastructure project, today threatened to go to court if the state government failed to resolve contentious issues including that of "freehold land", within the next two months.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories is setting up two special economic zones -- one each at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
There are four nodes and each of these, like Dronagiri, is also formally termed an SEZ, all part of the NMSEZ.
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