Land acquisition seems to be coming in the way of setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Real estate player Parsvnath Infra Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) are among the two major players which have sought to denotify their proposed SEZs.
While Parsvnath Infra Ltd sought to surrender its sector-specific SEZ for IT/ITES at Sohna Road, Reliance Industries requested to denotify Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd, a unit of RIL.
In its meeting on June 12, the Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary S.R. Rao, approved the proposal for de-notification.
“The approval is subject to the DC (Development Commissioner) furnishing a certificate that the developer has either not availed or has refunded all the tax/duty benefits availed under SEZ Act/Rules...,” the minutes of the SEZ BoA meeting said.
In its application, Parsvnath Infra had requested for de-notification of the zone on the grounds that “it has not been possible to acquire some small pockets within the notified area, thereby, affecting contiguity. And further extension of formal approval has been denied by the Ministry of Commerce.”
Parsvnath’s IT/ITeS SEZ at Sohna Raod, Gurgaon, was notified on August 23, 2007, over an area of 42.4 hectares, while the Reliance SEZ was notified over an area of 440.714 hectares.
In the past, several developers have surrendered their SEZs following land acquisition problems.
The Board has also denotified Biological E. Ltd’s SEZ for biotechnology proposed at Ranga Reddy District in Andhra Pradesh. The SEZ was notified over an area of 10.347 hectares.