New special economic zone Act in 10 days

KOLKATA: An all-new special economic zone (SEZ) Act will be notified with rules and regulations within the next 10 days. Till now, setting up of an SEZ was by administrative action and not by a statute.

This major announcement was made by Union commerce minister Kamal Nath, on the sidelines of “The Partnership Summit, 2006” - a three-day event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday.

The government has already received 70 proposals for setting up SEZs entailing a total investment of around Rs 10,000 crore.

“We have taken some time in framing the rules and regulations as we wanted to make sure that the rules should be enabling.

With the intention of widening the SEZ, this will be a major initiative to attract investment. SEZs will now be product-specific or sector-specific. For example, in the textile sector, there may be SEZs for yarns to garments,” Kamal Nath said. 

The existing SEZs will now come under the ambit of the new SEZ Act.