The Government has given more time to 307 SEZ developers to execute their projects, Parliament was informed on Monday.The developers have sought extension due to various reasons, including adverse business climate due to global recession, delay in approvals from statutory state government bodies, delay in environmental clearances and unstable fiscal incentive regime, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D Purandeswari said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"307 developers have been granted extension of validity period of the letters of approval granted to them for extension of their projects," she said.
From Andra Pradesh, 56 developers of special economic zones (SEZs) have got more time to execute their projects, followed by Maharashtra (53), Tamil Nadu (37), Haryana (35), Karnatka (26), Gujarat (22), Kerala (16) and Uttar Pradesh (13).
Exports from these tax-free enclaves grew by 36 per cent to Rs 2.39 lakh crore (Rs 2.39 trillion) during the April-September quarter of this fiscal,, compared to the same period last year.
So far, 385 SEZs have been notified and 160 SEZs are in operation, out of which 17 are multi-product SEZs, remaining are IT/ITeS, engineering, electronic hardware, textiles, biotechnology, gem &