The Hindu Business Line : APIIC looking at forming separate co for SEZs

Hyderabad, Aug. 12 The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) is looking at creating a separate company for the special economic zones (SEZ) being developed by it.

The State Government sources told Business Line that though the idea is in the preliminary stage, a decision has been taken on the issue.

“Earlier, those organisations that were developing projects in public interest, like trusts and so on, were given tax exemptions. But, in March this year, the Central Government amended the Income-Tax Act which has resulted in APIIC taking such a decision,” the sources said.

As per the change, trading, commercial business institutions even though are taking up projects in public interest will not get tax exemptions from the current financial year. The amendment also applies for an SEZ as it has noted that, an SEZ is also a business transaction.

The sources said that because of this change, APIIC has to bear an additional burden of Rs 60-70 crore and to minimise this it is looking at creating the subsidiary company.

In initial stages

APIIC official also said that the proposal was in the initial stages and the corporation is looking at the plan to get concessions under the SEZ Act.

The corporation is developing 18 SEZs in the State, out of which 13 have been notified, while others are yet to get the nod from the Board of Approval of SEZs.

APIIC is developing three SEZs, out of which two are multi-product and the other an IT & ITES SEZ in Visakhapatnam, one IT and ITES SEZ in Krishna, East Godavari District, Warangal, Chittoor and Kadapa. Also one semiconductor, hardware and IT and ITES SEZs are coming up in Ranga Reddy district.

The other two are for formulations and a biotech SEZ being developed in Mahaboobnagar and Medak districts, respectively. These SEZs are being developed in around 2,741.92 hectares.

The official also said that SEZs were being developed in Nellore, Prakasham, and a couple more in Visakhapatnam and Ranga Reddy districts. These SEZs, for which the notification is yet to come, are in leather products, building products, aero space and precision engineering, IT and ITES and one multi-product SEZ coming up in 1,386.25 hectares.

The total investment proposed in the notified SEZs of the Corporation is Rs 3,228.85 crore out of which around Rs 350 crore has been invested so far.

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