Centre urged to ease IT SEZ norms

ARUN S
Posted online: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 0000 hours IST




NEW DELHI, JUL 9 : Karnataka and Maharashtra have asked the Centre to
relax rules regarding clearance of IT/ITeS special economic zones (SEZs).
The two states house many big IT firms but have a ban on purchase of
agricultural land by non-agriculturists,

Several developers in these two states want the Centre to allow them to
go for in-principle approval initially, so that they can try to get
landuse changed from agricultural to industrial and then purchase them
for SEZ projects.

Non-agriculturists are allowed to purchase industrial land in these
states for purposes like SEZ development.

The Centre had notified in August last year that since the minimum
required area for an IT/ITeS SEZ was only a small land parcel of 10
hectares, developers should apply directly for formal approval after
acquiring the required land and not for in-principal nod without the
land. Currently, the Centre grants in-principal nod to SEZs with a huge
minimum land requirement (sector-specific SEZs with a minimum land
requirement of 100 hectares and multi-product SEZs with a minimum land
requirement of 1,000 hectares).
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