COMPANIES VIE TO SHED SEZ TAG FOR STATE SOPS

Companies are vying to shed the ‘SEZ’ tag as the Centre has withdrawn certain concessions that were announced earlier. These companies want to come under the state government’s TS-iPASS which has benefits like faster approvals among others.

A large number of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were sanctioned especially on city outskirts by the UPA government between 2004 and 2013. There was heavy demand for the SEZ tag due to tax holidays and other incentives.

The UPA government later withdrew some of the concessions and the subsequent NDA government removed some more. Following this, several SEZs with thousands of acres of land have remained non-functional.

Sources in the industries department said that 15 SEZs, mostly on the city outskirts, have applied for withdrawal of the SEZ tag.

The state government has to issue a no-objection certificate (NoC) to enable the Centre to denotify an SEZ.

Official sources said the companies which sought SEZ denotification include Fab City semiconductor SEZ (285 acres), Emaar Hills, Brahmani, Sanghi, Maytas Enterprises, Rudradev, Mahavir Sky Scrappers, Parsvnath Biotech SEZ, TSIIC Hardware IT SEZ, Madikonda IT SEZ, Warangal, and Hasanparthy VR Enterprises IT SEZ.

The Centre has given in-principle nod for denotifcation of SEZ status to four SEZs: Dr Reddy’s Pharma SEZ in Medak, Biological E Biotech SEZ, Maytas Ventures and S2Tech IT SEZ.

The UPA had approved 67 SEZs in the state. Of which, 24 are operational. Another seven are under various stages of approval.

Approval for 21 applicants were denied and another 15 SEZs have sought denotification. Even the state government’s TS Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has sought denotification of its three IT SEZs with a plan to set up IT parks in their place.