Karnataka - Mysore   

Approval for SEZ in IT sector in Mysore

Staff Correspondent

`Special Economic Zones being set up to provide exporters a hassle-free environment'

MYSORE: The Government of India has agreed in principle to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Mysore.

Development Commissioner for Cochin Special Economic Zone C.J. Matthew announced this at a session on SEZs organised by Confederation of Indian Industries, Mysore Zone, on Friday.

Mr. Mathew said that the SEZ in Mysore was among the 75 SEZs in the country that had been cleared by the Board of Approvals for SEZ, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi. "The Government received 388 applications from developers all over the country. We cleared about 150 proposals, out of which almost 75 are in the IT sector", he said.

Although the proposal for an SEZ in Mysore had been cleared in principle, Mr. Mathew said he was not aware of its current status. But he said that establishing SEZs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities was a good trend.

The Centre had introduced the policy of setting up SEZs with a view to providing exporters an internationally competitive and hassle-free environment.

The industries set up in SEZ enjoyed concessions including IT tax holiday for fifteen years and exemption from levies such as Value Added Tax, entry tax and octroi.

The SEZ is meant to be a designated duty-free enclave, which was to be treated as a foreign territory for trade operations, duties and tariffs. No licence was required for imports, and the units in SEZ were exempted from payment of customs duty on import of capital goods, raw materials, consumables and spares. Mr. Mathew said that there was big scope for growth of SEZs in India because of a healthy labour scenario. Several European companies were planning to relocate to SEZs in India.

The Government would permit multi-product SEZs to come up, but they should be planned in a minimum of 2,500 acres of land, he said. The developer will have to provide the investor all the basic facilities including power, water and other infrastructure.

The setting up of SEZ will cost the developer about Rs. 1 crore for every acre, Mr. Mathew said. There were 3,000 SEZs across the world and the oldest is in the U.S. The Government enacted the SEZ Act in 2005 and followed it up by issuing a notification on SEZ rules in February 2006.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

NGOs hit out at ex-Mayors
AIPJD activists stage protest at venue of bicycle distribution
First batch of elephants arrives
Approval for SEZ in IT sector in Mysore
Rare inscription discovered
Music competition

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu