Special Economic Zone

ONGC's OPaL exits from Dahej SEZ, aims to tap into booming local market

ONGC PetroAdditions Ltd, a subsidiary of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has relinquished its 'only-for-export' unit status as it aims to tap into the booming local petrochemical market to drive a turnaround. In a stock exchange filing, ONGC said OPaL has received the final approval for its exit from the Dahej Special Economic Zone (SEZ). "Accordingly, OPaL shall operate as a Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) unit with effect from March 8, 2025," ONGC said. "Further, this exit from SEZ will improve the competitiveness of OPaL for supplies to be made to the DTA". This essentially means primarily catering to the domestic Indian market instead of focusing on exports, which is the primary purpose of an SEZ unit. It will now not have to pay customs duty on products sold within India, helping improve margins. The move is primarily to gain access to the wider domestic market and potentially benefit from the lower corporate tax regime. ONGC's C2C3 project extracts ethane

Indore SEZ exports drop by 6.5% due to lower pharmaceutical orders

Exports from Indore's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) fell by about 6.50 per cent to Rs 9,766.53 crore in the first nine months of 2024-25 due to a decrease in orders from pharmaceutical units, an official said. The Union Commerce and Industry Ministry official on Friday said that this SEZ, which has factories for different products, had exported products worth about Rs 10,449 crore between April and December in the financial year 2023-24. He said that medicines account for about 70 per cent of the exports from Indore SEZ. The official said that 59 plants in different sectors including medicine, packaging material, engineering, textile manufacturing and food processing are running in Indore SEZ spread over 572 hectares. Of these, 22 units are from the pharmaceutical sector alone.

Singapore and Malaysia to finalise deal creating vast economic zone

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will officiate a ceremony on Tuesday for the economic zone in Malaysia's southern state of Johor

Industry seeks extension of RoDTEP scheme to SEZs, EOUs till Sep-end

Currently, the RoDTEP scheme for exports from the domestic tariff area (DTA) or the domestic market is in place until September 30

MSEZ partners with Italy's MIR Group for Rs 1,500 cr green facility

The proposed facility will focus on manufacturing BIPV panels, thermal insulation materials, sodium-ion batteries, and insulated doors and windows

Malaysia generating enough energy for big development projects, exports: PM

The investment boost has helped propel Malaysia's economy this year, with growth beating expectations in the past two quarters

Adani Ports to acquire 80% stake in Astro Offshore for $185 million

The company in a statement said the existing promoters of Astro will hold the remaining 20 per cent stake

No exemption for SEZ units under the proposed Central Excise Bill

Officials get to audit businesses; duty recovery time increases to three years

Adani Ports & SEZ shares stable a day after Norway's Norges Bank exit

Norges had cited Adani's investment in a port in Myanmar for its decision

Tamil Nadu among best states in country for economic zone: DP World

Tamil Nadu is one of the best states in the country for an economic zone as the state is one of the most industrialised in India, a senior official of global logistics company DP World has said. DP World has started operations at its largest free trade warehouse zone in India in Chennai. The Chennai facility is the company's second free trade warehouse zone (FTWZ) in India after Mumbai that was established 18 months old. DP World's CEO -- Economic Zones, India Subcontinent and MENA, Ranjit Ray, said Chennai also has strategic advantages since it is connected to South Asia, Africa, Australia via the sea route. "Tamil Nadu is one of the best states in the country for an economic zone. We just started business and now have 15 per cent occupancy in six months," he said. DP World's Chennai economic zone is spread over 6 lakh sq ft with a potential to grow to 2 million sq ft. Tamil Nadu has been one of the most industrialised states in the country for the last 40-50 years, Ray said. D

ReNew, JERA to jointly evaluate green ammonia projects in Odisha

ReNew also has a joint venture called GH4India Pvt Ltd with state-owned oil company Indian Oil Ltd and manufacturing major L&T to jointly set up a green hydrogen business

Revamped SEZ law unlikely before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections

The commerce department had sought the Union Cabinet's nod to bring amendments in the existing SEZ Act, 2005 late last year

Govt working on reforms for Special Economic Zones: Commerce secretary

The government is working on reforms in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) domain so that movement of goods between domestic tariff area (DTA) and SEZ space is carried out smoothly without affecting the competitiveness of goods in the export markets, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said on Saturday. During the pandemic two years ago, many office spaces in the SEZ areas had been vacated due to 'work from home' practice initiated by the occupants. Barthwal said this had led to the demarcation of SEZs into SEZ and DTA spaces. "Scale economies have become very important nowadays. Reforms in the SEZ are in the offing so that movement of goods from SEZ to DTA and vice-versa are not affected rendering goods produced become less competitive", Barthwal said at a symposium organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce. The official said that the foreign trade policy (FTP) of the government had been framed keeping in mind the global value chain. "Our FTP has been designed for exporters to take

Amendments to SEZ Act to spur commercial office space leasing: CRISIL

The recent notification of the commerce ministry to demarcate part of Special Economic Zones into non-SEZ areas will spur office space leasing in the country, according to a report prepared by research firm Crisil Ratings. India's office space leasing is expected to benefit from the recent amendments to the SEZ Act of 2005, notified by the commerce ministry on December 6, 2023, it said. As per the notification, the amendments permit the demarcation of a part of the SEZ areas into non-SEZ ones after repayment of tax benefits availed till date, the report said. Such a demarcation of non-SEZ areas is expected to create better occupancy through commercial office space leasing, resulting in higher incomes which will outweigh associated costs. Crisil said the SEZ Act was introduced to drive exports by providing tax exemptions for companies operating within such areas. After the sunset clause of the Act kicked off in April 2020, the legislation is no longer in effect but higher complianc

Warning Letter for Pithampur SEZ facility remains an overhang for Cipla

While some brokerages believe that the issue could escalate and be detrimental for Cipla, others believe that the Warning Letter was on expected lines and the impact may not be meaningful

Madras High Court sets aside govt's IGST refund denial order for Lenovo

The case is related to a partial denial of refunding IGST paid by Lenovo (India) on these sales between December 2019 and February 2020

SEZs should be allowed to sell goods on payment of duty foregone: GTRI

The government should consider allowing the sale of products manufactured in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the domestic market on payment of duty foregone on inputs as that would help promote value addition, think tank GTRI said on Tuesday. At present, units in SEZs are allowed to sell their products in the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA or domestic market) on payment of duties on an output basis (finished goods). The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the government already allows DTA sales on payment of duty foregone on input basis to firms operating under the 'Manufacturing and Other Operations in Warehouse Regulations (MOOWR)' scheme. The government can "extend the same concession to the SEZs for parity sake. This will encourage value addition within the SEZ, as in most cases, the tariff on finished products is higher than on inputs," GTRI Co-Founder Ajay Srivastava said. He added that SEZ units could be incentivised to increase value addition to avail the benefit of DT

Govt could discard proposed DESH Bill, amend SEZ Act: Details here

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is eager to permit units in these zones to sell in areas outside SEZs, called domestic tariff areas (DTA) without the payment of customs duties

Commerce department likely to tweak some SEZ rules in DESH Bill

Move will allow use of unutilised spaces in IT/ITeS for non-SEZ purposes

Software exports from MP's four IT SEZs jump 66% to Rs 2,926 crore in FY23

Software exports from four information technology (IT) Special Economic Zone (SEZs) in Madhya Pradesh's Indore jumped 66 per cent to Rs 2,925.60 crore during FY23, a commerce and industry ministry official said on Wednesday. The largest share in the overall shipments from the SEZs has been of IT giant TCS with 51.6 per cent. The official said in the FY22, software worth Rs 1,761.19 crore was exported from these four IT SEZs. During the financial year ended March 2023, software exports worth Rs 1,509.80 crore were made from TCS SEZ, registering a growth of about 74 per cent. Exports from Infosys SEZ grew more than three times to Rs 444.80 crore during the period, while the outbound shipments from Impetus SEZ more than doubled to Rs 330.77 crore, the official said. According to the official, during FY23 software exports from Crystal IT Park SEZ reached Rs 640.23 crore, registering an increase of about seven per cent.