The Hindu Business Line : Board of Approval for SEZs to meet today

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New Delhi Feb. 1 The Board of Approval (BoA) for Special Economic Zones is holding its meeting here on Friday, in the light of the recent decision of the Government to freeze grant of approval for fresh SEZ cases.

The decision to freeze approval of fresh cases follows the furore created by land acquisition and displacement of farmers without adequate compensation. A rehabilitation package currently on the anvil by the Ministry of Rural Development is likely to go to the Union Cabinet very soon.

Sources in the Government told Business Line here that the meeting might review the cases of 28 SEZ proposals already notified but which were stuck due to non-implementation or operationalisation.

Recently, the Commerce Ministry has been flooded with a litany of woes by SEZ developers or units whose cases had not been notified though they had fulfilled all preparatory formalities for being notified. Besides these 28 specific cases due for notification, the BoA might also discuss the issues plaguing the already notified 63 SEZs.

The BoA which was to meet in January could not do so twice with as many as 81 fresh cases slated for its approval. However, the empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) on SEZ under the chairmanship of the Union External Affairs Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, met on January 22, 2006 but the meeting was "inconclusive". Issues such as land acquisition, rehabilitation and compensation for displaced farmers and the potential misuse of tax breaks figured during the discussion at the eGoM meeting. A suggestion to impose a sort of export obligation on SEZ too was made by one of the Ministers in a bid to inject accountability for tax concessions cornered by the SEZs but the proposal did not find appreciation either by the Commerce Ministry or the Planning Commission, the sources said.

They said that Friday's meeting of the BoA, key members of the Committee such as the Director-General of the Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZ Units, Mr L.B. Singhal, and the Director in the Department of Commerce, Mr Yogendar Garg, would not be present as they had gone to China taking with them all the seven Development Commissioners (DCs) for a spot study of SEZs in China.

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