Comments
Terming the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Gujarat a 'highly successful' projects, top officials claimed more than 40 per cent of the SEZs in the State have reported robust growth, while five new SEZs are also in the pipeline for approval.
Sector-specific SEZ by Zydus Cadila has achieved highest growth of 41.11 per cent in terms of the 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 Gujarat during 2016-17 have reported marginal decline of 0.45 per cent from Rs 1,26,086 crore as on February 2016 to Rs 1,25,521 crore as on February 2017.
The five new SEZs, which are in the pipeline and 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's SEZs to surpass Rs 1.35 lakh crore level in 2016-17," said Upendra Vasishth, Zonal Development Commissioner, Gujarat.
Vasishth further added that exports from the country's oldest SEZ, Kandla SEZ (KASEZ) has increased from Rs 1000 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 4,227 crore in 2015-16. "We expect the exports to touch Rs 5000 crore from KASEZ this year," he added. KAZEZ celebrated its 53rd foundation day on March 7.
The growth will be faster in GIFT-IFSC and Dahen SEZ, where ONGC's OPaL facility has just become 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 Rs 5 lakh crore from the total SEZs in India.
Vasishth maintained that the GIFT-IFSC, a multi-services SEZ has reported exports of Rs 265 crore as on February 2017, which is likely to cross Rs 300 crore by the end of the fiscal, thereby registering a sharp growth over last year's exports of Rs 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 the leading banks. About 56 letter of allotments will be given to the broker members at 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.
Vasishth also pressed for a need of single regulator for the IFSC, the first and only one Financial Services Centre in the country.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.