NEW DELHI: The draft Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Bill has undergone changes based on inputs from industry and the revised Bill is under inter-ministerial consultation, according to sources in the know of the development.
The Bill, which was supposed to be tabled in the Monsoon session of parliament, will now be placed before the parliament in the next session. Sources told TNIE that the government is simultaneously framing the rules for the Bill, as it is also considering the ordinance route to implement the new SEZ Bill.
“The Act and rules will be notified together,” said a source privy to the discussions on the matter.
According to the sources, last week the Ministry of Commerce organised an interaction with trade and has taken inputs from the industry. The proposed Bill is likely to make far-reaching changes to the SEZ Act and replace it with a new law that will enable the SEZs to not just be export hubs but become development hubs. The Bill proposes to turn SEZs into development of enterprise and service hubs (DESH) and is likely to allow partial denotification of SEZ areas that are not in use.
The new Bill might allow service hubs to have partial or floor-wise denotification facilities. Also, the government is looking into the demands of extending Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) to manufacturing units in the SEZs. As of now, units in SEZ do not get any corporate tax benefits.
So, the plan is to extend the 15% corporate tax benefits to units inside SEZs. “Digitisation and simplification should be a priority. Further, the transition mechanism, that is, from the current scheme to the new Bill should have absolute clarity so that there are no hiccups going forward,” says Anita Rastogi, partner, PwC.
SEZ Bill may be tabled in next session
The Bill, which was supposed to be tabled in the Monsoon session of parliament, will now be tabled in parliament in the next session. Sources told TNIE that govt are also considering an ordinance route.