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Terming the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Gujarat ‘highly successful’ projects, top officials said that more than 40 per cent of the SEZs in the State have reported robust growth, while approval for five new SEZs arein the pipeline.
Sector-specific SEZ by Zydus Cadila has achieved the highest growth of 41.11 per cent in terms of value of exports, followed by GIDC Apparel Park and Dahej SEZ, with 34.3 per cent and 29.8 per cent respectively. Total exports made from SEZs in the State during 2016-17 have reported marginal decline of 0.45 per cent from ₹1,26,086 crore as on February 2016 to ₹1,25,521 crore as on February 2017.
Bucking the trendThe five new SEZs at the various stages of approval include GIDC’s IT SEZ in Gandhinagar, HBS Pharma SEZ near Panoli in South Gujarat and three in Kutch — one by Kandla Port Trust, while two by IL&FS, including one Free Trade and Warehousing Zone.
“The SEZs in Gujarat have bucked the national trend. Out of the total 19 operational SEZs in the State, about 11 have shown growth, while 7-8 of them are growing at a robust pace. We expect the total exports from Gujarat SEZs to surpass ₹1.35 lakh crorein 2016-17,” said Upendra Vasishth, Zonal Development Commissioner, Gujarat.
Vasishth further added that exports from the country’s oldest SEZ, Kandla SEZ (KASEZ), have increased from ₹1,000 crore in 2005-06 to ₹4,227 crore in 2015-16. “We expect the exports to touch ₹5,000 crore from KASEZ this year,” he added.
The growth will be faster in GIFT-IFSC and Dahen SEZ, where ONGC’s OPaL facility hasbecome operational.
Gujarat has 10 per cent of functional SEZs of the country’s 180 SEZs, while they hold nearly 30 per cent share in the total exports of ₹5 lakh crore from the total SEZs in India.
Multi-services SEZVasishth maintained that the GIFT-IFSC, a multi-services SEZ, has reported exports of ₹265 crore as on February 2017, which is likely to cross ₹300 crore by the end of the fiscal, thereby registering a sharp growth over last year’s exports of ₹94 crore from GIFT SEZ.
“There will be big push for the GIFT SEZ, which is having an international exchange and IFSC banking units of leading banks. About 56 letters of allotment will be given to the broker members at the International Exchange,” he stated adding that the brokers and banks at the GIFT IFSC can grow faster with more lucrative regulations. “Currently, they are allowed to transact only with the institutions; individuals are not allowed. Some more things are lined up to make this a robust SEZ,” he added.
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