The Board of Approval (BoA) in the Ministry of Commerce,Government of India,will take a final decision on June 2 on the de-notification application filed by realty major,DLF,pertaining to its SEZ (special economic zone) in Gandhinagar. The state government,however,continues to maintain a stoic silence on the issue. DLF wanted to set up an Information Technology SEZ but later changed its plan and sought de-notification of land instead. This,even when Gujarats secretary for Science and Technology,Raj Kumar,had admitted to this newspaper,as reported on January 21,2009,that some parties might have some malicious intentions while proposing an IT/ITES SEZ. Kumar,while acknowledging that majority of the proposed IT/ITES SEZ in the state were being developed by real estate companies (at least 12 out of the 16 proposals approved so far),had said,In Gujarat,we follow the New Tenure Land policy that makes it clear that no company is given full possession of the allotted land. He had said: Failure to fulfil the time-bound terms and conditions of the SEZ Act and non-implementation of the proposed IT/ITES SEZ would lead to cancellation of the land allotment. This land would then be acquired by the government,setting aside all the real estate ambitions of the developers,if any. G I Desai,Deputy Commissioner,Industries Commissionerate,Gujarat,refused to confirm media reports that the government has issued a no objection to DLFs Information Technology SEZ de-notification. He said,A senior government official will put forward our stand before the BoA on Tuesday. Raj Kumar,while refusing to comment on the de-notification issue,said: The Industries Commissionerate will decide on that. On our part,we are only concerned that IT/ITES related activities are performed on the designated land and as DLF has assured us to develop an IT Park instead of an IT SEZ,we have no issues. The Export Promotion Council (EPC) for EOUs & SEZ Units,Ministry of Commerce,Government of India,has supported the de-notification demand of the reality major only if it refunds all the duty-free benefits claimed. L B Singhal,Director General,EPC,when contacted,reiterated,All those who want to exit the SEZ sector should be allowed to do so but only when the government has recovered all the subsidies extended in the name of SEZ policy.
