VISAKHAPATNAM: The recent amendments by Union Ministry of Commerce to SEZ Rules, 2006 is a welcome measure for promoting exports by encouraging setting up of more multi-sector SEZs in small chunks of lands by this fiscal year-end, Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) Zonal Development Commissioner A Rama Mohan Reddy said.
Reddy said the 2019 amendment facilitates setting up of more industries across the country. India is in the third position in the world with 234 operational SEZs and 5,141 operational units generating employment of 21.17 lakh employees.
The notification issued by the Department of Commerce removes the age-old characterization to SEZs made in the Rules in 2006 to facilitate the flexibility in setting up of SEZs, he said. VSEZ will look after SEZ in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh and Yanam Union Territory (UT).
As per the latest amendment, all SEZs have now been declared uniform in size and any SEZ can be allowed to be set up over 50 plus hectares, which otherwise used to be 500 hectares, except IT/ITES where minimum land area requirement is not specified, but the built-up area is specified.
Henceforth all existing SEZs will become multi-sector SEZs, removing the difficulty in the search for availability of large chunks of land. Any SEZ, which is introduced as product or sector-specific as on date, will continue to cease its status and will be treated as multi-product and can do more than two sectors in goods or services, including FTWZ (free trade warehousing).
There shall be no minimum land area requirement for setting up of an SEZ for IT or ITES, biotech or health (other than hospitals). The minimum requirement of land has been reduced to 25 hectares or more in the case of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Goa for setting up an SEZ. Minimum built-up area requirements have also been brought down to 50,000 square metres, 25,000 sq mt and 15,000 sq mt in A, B and C category cities.