Govt to soon come out with new norms to revive SEZs

NEW DELHI: The government will soon announce the new norms aimed to revive special economic zones (SEZs), which were devalued after the enforcement of certain levies and the proposal to take away tax incentives.

As per the information revealed by the Commerce Secretary SR Rao, the Commerce Ministry has held a series of meetings with the Revenue Department officials on the matter.

“We are on the verge of getting a closure on the issues. I think in maximum 4-5 weeks, you should be seeing the new rules kicking in,” Rao said.

In 2010-11, the government had imposed Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) on SEZs, which were earlier exempted from almost all levies.

There has been a significant slowdown in the growth of export from SEZs due to imposition of these levies.

The much-talked Direct Taxes Codes (DTC) being considered by Parliament recommends to get rid of the income tax exemption given to them and instead link tax sops to investments made in them.

The government is chalking out plans to relax minimum land area requirement for different categories of SEZs, and is also considering to extend the benefits of export schemes to SEZ units.

In 2011-12, the exports from SEZs stood at Rs 3.65 lakh crore.