PANJIM, NOV 30
Even as they were demanding ‘compensation’ for so-called losses incurred in their cancelled IT/ITES Special Economic Zone (SEZ) scheduled to have been set up on around 4 lakh sq metres of land at Verna, top Mumbai real estate developers Rahejas have been making plans to abandon similar SEZs that they claimed they wanted to set up elsewhere.
The Rahejas, who had said they wanted to set up an SEZ meant specifically for information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITES) in Vemali village of Vadodara district, have now told the Gujarat Government that they are “not interested”.
The SEZ company, set up in the name of Strength Real Estate Pvt Ltd, has already “surrendered” 13.74 hectares (1.37 lakh sq metres) of land to the Gujarat Government, which had allocated it to them.
Strength Real Estate was issued a letter of approval (LOA) to build an IT/ITES SEZ on September 2, 2008, but didn’t. “Now the developer has requested for withdrawal of formal approval”, an internal Government note says, giving three reasons for withdrawal. These are: (1) Global recession (2) Unsuitability of the land allotted (3) Discontinuance of benefits to SEZ units operating after March 31, 2011 as per the proposed direct tax code.
The company approached the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries on August 24, 2010 to withdraw from the SEZ. The state government has “no objection”, but is verifying whether the developers have refunded the tax/duty benefits, if any, which they might have availed under the SEZ Act/ Rules.
