Centre issues order to denotify three Goa SEZs
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, DEC 2
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday issued an order kicking off the process for denotification of three SEZs (Special Economic Zones) in Goa.
The actual denotification, however, will take time as the proposal has to go before the Board of Approval that sanctions SEZs and no meeting of the board is still fixed.
“We have not yet fixed the next Board meeting after the 43rd meeting held on November 18 and the proposals for denotification will have to be put on the agenda for clearance”, a Department of Commerce official said, adding that the Government has to go by the board’s decisions and cannot act on its own to reverse the decision.
It is the statutory board that gives clearance to the SEZs and as such cancellation of any clearance is also required to be referred to it, the official said, pointing out that formal approval was granted for seven SEZs in Goa but only three were notified.
Congress MP Shantaram Naik said he called on the Commerce Minister who issued orders on his memorandum for denotifying the three SEZs without wasting any time. He expects the formal notifications “soon”.
Naik had approached the minister to point out that the Panjim Bench of the Bombay High Court had disposed off the pending SEZ petition, holding land allotment to them as illegal and as such there should be no problem now in their denotification.
According to Naik, there was even otherwise no injunction against the Centre from denotifying the SEZs, but Anand Sharma had taken the stand that the Government won’t denotify them when the matter is pending before the court.
Naik said he told the minister that the SEZ developers no longer have land with them and as such he can proceed with denotification without any difficulty.
