Special Economic Zone

A policy for setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the country with a view to provide an internationally competitive and hassle free environment for exports was introduced on April 1, 2000. Units may be set up in SEZ for manufacturing of goods and/or rendering of Services. All the import/export operation of the SEZ units will be on self-certification basis. The units in the Zone have to be a net foreign exchange earner but they shall not be subject to any predetermined value addition or minimum export performance requirements. Sales in the Domestic Tariff area by SEZ units shall be subject to payment of full custom duty and import policy in force. Further offshore banking unit may be set up in the SEZs.

Special Economic Zone Act has been introduced in the year 2005. It is an act to provide for the establishment, development and management of the Special Economic Zones for the promotion of exports and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The policy provides for setting of SEZ's in the public, private joint sector or by State Govts. It was also envisaged that some of the existing Export Processing Zones would be converted into SEZs. Accordingly, Government has converted the Export Processing Zones located at Kandla and Surat (Gujrat), Cochin (Kerala), Santa Cruz ( Mumbai-Maharashtra), Falta ( West Bengal) , Madras( Tamil Nadu), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh) into a Special Economic Zones.

In addition, approval has been given for setting up of 42 SEZs in various parts of the country in private/joint sectors or by the State Govt. Besides these, 3 new additional SEZs approved for establishment at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Manikanchan- Salt Lake (Kolkata) and Jaipur have since commended operations.