| Govt clears 34 SEZs; no roll back in Goa |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi January 2, 2008 |
| The central government today approved 34 fresh proposals for special economic zones (SEZs) taking the total number of clearances to over 600 tax-free zones. The board of approvals (BoA), chaired by commerce secretary G K Pillai, gave in-principle clearance to four SEZs, while 30 proposals were granted 'formal' green signal. Those given approval included proposal of the state-owned Steel Authority of India at Salem in Tamil Nadu. "An investment of Rs 56,000 crore has already been made in the 187 notified SEZs, which will create 100,000 jobs in 2008 itself," Pillai told reporters after the BoA meeting. Pillai also added the central government will not cancel the notification status for SEZs in Goa. He said, "Once a zone is notified, there is no provision to take the status back." The Goa government had earlier said that apart from the recommending scrapping of 12 SEZs it would also recommend to the Centre, the denotification of 3 SEZs in the state. These SEZs are - Peninsula Pharma Research Centre, Meditab Specialities and K Raheja Corporation. Pillai also said that the commerce ministry hasn |
