Ministry seeks clear security norms on SEZs

The commerce ministry has asked the home ministry to issue specific guidelines for approving those Special Economic Zones whose clearance has been deferred on security grounds.

There were over half a dozen proposals, including one of the Tatas, pending with the Board of Approval as the home ministry was yet to give them security clearance, a government official said. BOA is an inter-ministerial panel that sanctions SEZs.

"The Tata's proposal to build an SEZ at Gopalpur in West Bengal has been delayed on security grounds since it is close to a strategic defence establishment," a commerce ministry official said.

"At every BOA meeting there are around 3-4 proposals which are deferred on security grounds. The main concern of the home ministry relates to the location of the zones near ports, close to the border, or close to strategic installations," he said.

When an SEZ proposal is deferred on security grounds, agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing have to give their clearance to the home ministry before it can be approved by BOA.

Officials said the commerce ministry was of the view that instead of imposing restrictions on SEZs based on location, the development commissioner or the approval committee of each SEZ should be asked to screen the companies that wanted to build units inside the zone, at the time of their application.

Earlier, the home ministry had informed the commerce ministry that security clearance could be given to companies setting up pharma or bio-technology zones as long as they did not use DNA technology there.

"We want the home ministry to come up with similar guidelines for multi-product and sectoral zones," said the official.

In the past, clearance for SEZs at Mundra and Kandla was deferred on security grounds for being close to ports, though they were later cleared.

The commerce ministry has modified the check list of parameters required to be fulfilled by a company that seeks to build an SEZ. Norms like disclosure of the amount of foreign investment and the source of the investment have been included due to increased security concerns.