such as gems and jewellery, information technology, bio-
technology, sector-Specific SEZs in these sectors can be
set up over an area of 10 hectares or more;
* For all other sectors, the area must be atleast 100
hectares.
* The area requirement for multi-product SEZs has been
relaxed to 200 hectares and for Sector Specific SEZs to 50
hectares, for certain States (Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland,
Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura Himachal
Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa) and
Union Territories, keeping in view the difficulty in
finding large tracts of contiguous land in such
States/Union Territories.
The drafting of Statutory Rules to effectively implement the provisions of the SEZ Act, 2005, has been in process since June, 2005 within the Government, taking all stakeholders into confidence.
Extensive consultations have been held with developers, potential investors, exporters, manufacturers, service providers, and Ministries/ Departments of the Government of India and State Governments.
Progressive versions of the draft rules were also placed on the Ministry's website for wide dissemination and to elicit greater response from the stakeholders.
SEZ Exports
So far, approvals have been given for setting up 117 Special Economic Zones (including 3 Free Trade Warehousing Zones) spread over 15 states and 2 union territories, of which 7 new SEZs have become functional. The other SEZs are at various stages of implementation.
Exports from the Special Economic Zones during 2004-05 were of the order of US$ 4 billion, representing an annual growth of over 36%. During April-December, 2005, the exports from the SEZs stood at about US$ 3.5 billion.
At present, 948 units are in operation in the SEZs, providing employment to more than 1 lakh people.
Ministry of Commerce, Government of India
marketing@alchempro.com
