As many as 138 SEZ developers have have been granted more time to complete their projects in the last four years, Parliament was informed today.
"During the last four years and current financial year (up to 25 April), extension of time has been granted to 138 developers of SEZ across the country to complete their projects," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
In a separate reply, the minister also said that special economic zones (SEZs) have seen a slowdown in terms of exports, increased number of applications for denotification, slower operationalisation and fewer number of requests for setting up new zones.
"The slowdown may be due to a number of reasons including withdrawal of exemption from minimum alternate tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) provisions, uncertain fiscal regime for SEZs and global slowdown in exports," she said.
During April-December 2015-16, exports from these zones dipped by 1.89 per cent to Rs 3.41 lakh crore.
She said that to boost SEZs, review meeting, open house discussions, road shows have been organised.
Replying to a separate question, Sitharaman said the Sagarmala programme conceptualised by the government envisages coastal economic zones (CEZs) as spatial economic regions around and integrally linked to a group of major and minor groups.
Three CEZs have been identified for Tamil Nadu.
"The total estimated investment in basic infrastructure and land for all the proposed three CEZs in Tamil Nadu would be about Rs 35,000 crore and expected to generate 8-10 lakh direct jobs in the next 10 years," she added.
Once the perspective plans for these are finalised, the projects would be implemented preferably through private sector on the PPP mode, she added.
In a separate reply on the pharma sector, Sitharaman said the department of pharmaceuticals and the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry are sorting out the issue relating to the difficulties being faced by the bulk drug manufacturers relating to environment issues to give boost to manufacturing.
In 2014-15, India has imported bulk drugs/active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) worth USD 3.24 billion from countries like China, Germany, the US, Japan, Italy and South Korea.
"Out of the total imports, China contributed about 63.6 per cent in 2014-15," she said.
Replying to a separate question, Sitharaman said the share of India's exports to SAARC countries vis-a-vis total Indian exports to all the countries has increased from 5.03 per cent in 2012-13 to 6.8 per cent in 2015-16 (April-February).
Similarly, she said the share of India's imports from the South Asian (SAARC) countries vis-a-vis total Indian imports from all the nations has increased from 0.55 per cent in 2012-13 to 0.77 per cent in 2015-16 (April-February).
