Govt approvals to 27 SEZs cancelled; 18 SEZs get more time to execute projects
During the course of a July 24 meeting, the inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA) of the Union Government had reached a decision with regard to the cancellation of its approvals to 27 Special Economic Zones (SEZs), while giving 18 SEZs some more time to execute their projects.
The SEZs whose approvals have been cancelled by the BoA include some bigwig names like Emaar MGF Land Ltd and SAIL Salem SEZ.
Noting that formal approval given to 27 SEZ developers have been cancelled by the BoA after due deliberations, the Commerce Ministry said that the approval to SEZs is “subject to the Development Commissioner furnishing a certificate in the prescribed format certifying that the developer has not availed any tax/duty benefits under SEZ Act/Rules or has refunded any such benefits availed by it.”
The Ministry also added that the approval is also subject to a ‘No objection certificate’ which has been furnished by the State Govt. to the SEZ proposal.
Revealing that a total of 43 SEZ cases were reviewed by the BoA for cancellation of formal approvals, the Commerce Ministry said that the Board has noted that the progress made by the 27 developers – whose approvals have been cancelled – was not satisfactory. The Board also decided to give more time to 18 SEZs to execute their projects.
Source – Financial Chronicle
