Performance of SEZs

In addition to seven Central Government Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and 12 State/Private Sector SEZs set up prior to the enactment of SEZ Act, 2005, formal approval has been accorded to 582 proposals out of which 374 SEZs have been notified. A total of 130 SEZs have commenced export. Statements containing state-wise and sector-wise distribution of SEZs are enclosed.

As on 31st December, 2010, an investment of Rs. 1,95,348 crore has been made in SEZs and the total direct employment in SEZs is 6,44,073 persons. The total physical Exports of Rs. 2,20,711 crore approximately have been made from SEZs during the year 2009-10 registering a growth of about 121.40% over the exports for the previous financial year. A statement showing sector-wise distribution of exports for the financial year 2009-10 is also enclosed. Exports from SEZs have been 26.10% of the total exports of the country during the said financial year. The total physical exports from SEZs as on 31st December, 2010 i.e. in the first three quarters of the current financial year, has been to the tune of Rs. 2,23,132 crore approximately registering a growth of 46.7% over the exports of corresponding period of the previous financial year. Total land area of notified SEZs is 44,414 hectares. SEZ being set up under the SEZ Act, 2005 are primarily private investment driven. The fiscal concessions and duty benefits allowed to SEZs are in built into the SEZ Act, 2005.

The Approval Committees under the Development Commissioners constituted for each Zone, which comprise representatives from Customs, Income-tax, State Governments etc. have been directed to monitor the performance of the SEZ Units. This includes scrutiny of Annual Performance Report (APR), Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) and details of rent recovery. Failure to meet the requirements of the scheme or any violation attracts action under Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.

On a request received from the developer, Board of Approval considers the request of extension of formal approval beyond the period of initial three years on case to case basis.

Citing global economic slowdown as the main reason, the requests for de-notification have been received from the developers. The Board of Approval has allowed 23 such requests in respect of SEZs located in various states and Union Territories. However, the final denotification is allowed only on receipt of certificate from the respective Development Commissioner that the Developer has refunded the duties/benefits, if any, availed by him.

State-wise distribution of approved Special Economic Zones
State	Formal Approval	Notified SEZs	Operational SEZs (Central Govt. + State Govt./Pvt. SEZs + notified SEZs under the Act, 2005)
Andhra Pradesh	109	74	32
Chandigarh	2	2	1
Chhattisgarh	2	1	0
Delhi	3	0	0
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	3	1	0
Goa	7	3	0
Gujarat	45	29	13
Haryana	45	34	3
Himachal Pradesh	0	0	0
Jharkhand	1	1	0
Karnataka	57	36	20
Kerala	28	17	7
Madhya Pradesh	15	6	1
Maharashtra	104	63	16
Nagaland	2	1	0
Orissa	11	6	1
Puducherry	1	0	0
Punjab	8	2	0
Rajasthan	10	8	3
Tamil Nadu	71	57	22
Uttar Pradesh	33	20	6
Uttarakhand	3	2	0
West Bengal	22	11	5
GRAND TOTAL	582	374	130

Sector-wise Distribution of approved Special Economic Zones
Sectors	Formal approvals	Notified SEZs	Operational SEZs (Central Govt. + State Govt./Pvt. SEZs + notified SEZs under the Act, 2005)
Agro	6	4	0
Airport based multiproduct	3	0	0
Auto and related	3	1	1
Aviation/Aerospace/ Animation & Gaming/ Copper	3	2	2
Beach & mineral/ metals	2	2	0
Bio-tech	33	18	2
Building prod./mal./ transport equt.	1	1	2
Electronic prod/ind	3	3	1
Engineering	21	16	7
Footwear/Leather	7	5	2
Food Processing	5	4	2
FTWZ	11	6	0
Gems and Jewellery	13	6	3
Handicrafts & Carpets	4	2	2
IT/ITES/Electronic Hardware/Semiconductor	353	233	75
Metal/Stain. Steel/Alum/Foundry	9	5	0
Metallurgical Engineering	1	0	0
Multi-Product	23	15	16
Multi-Services/Services	16	8	0
Non-Conventional Energy	5	4	2
Plastic processing	0	0	0
Petrochemicals & petro.	4	2	0
Pharma/chemicals	23	20	5
Port-based multi-product	8	2	2
Power/alternate energy/ solar	3	1	1
Textiles/Apparel/Wool	19	12	5
Writing and printing paper mills	2	1	0
Strategic Manufacturing	0	0	0
Granite processing Industries and other allied machinery/ manufacturing	1	1	0
GRAND TOTAL	582	374	130

Sector-wise Exports during the financial year 2009-10
( In Rs. Crore)
Sl. No.	Sector	2009-10
1	Multi Product SEZs	144971.77
2	IT/ITES	52995.16
3	Pharmaceuticals	1505.74
4	Engineering	4165.45
5	Gem and Jewellery	14984.41
6	Handicraft	41.77
7	Auto and related items	226.07
8	Apparel/Textiles/Wool	625.36
9	Footwear and Leather Products	253.05
10	Food Processing	2.16
11	Biotechnology	456.48
12	Port Based	0.48
13	Animation & Gaming	0.45
14	Aluminium & Aluminium related Industries	8.78
15	Non-conventional Energy	450.03
16	Transport equipment	24.15
	Total	220711.31

This information was given by Shri Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Forest Landfor Mining Activities

Under the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 the Central Government accords prior approval for diversion of forest land non-forest purpose including mining activities. So far, about 1,34,307 ha. forest land has been diverted for mining activities. Keeping in view the specific nature of each mining project, the Central Government stipulates certain project specific conditions in addition to the standard terms and conditions, wherever required, in the interest of conservation, protection or development of forests, wildlife and environment to mitigate the specific adverse impact(s) likely to arise from such mining project on flora, fauna and environment etc. State-wise details of the forest land diverted for mining purpose along with the standard terms and conditions stipulated by the Central Government while according permission for its diversion is annexed.

Primary responsibility to ensure compliance to the stipulated conditions lies with the State/UT Governments concerned. However, the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Environment & Forests located at Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Shillong undertake periodic inspections of the mining projects located in the forest areas within their jurisdiction. So far, compliance to the stipulated conditions, by and large, has been found to be satisfactory.

ANNEXURE

A. State/UT-wise Details of the Prior Approval Accorded by the Central Government Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for Diversion of Forest Land For Mining Activities (As on 01.03.2011)

Sl. No.	State/ UT	Approvals Accorded
		No. of Cases	Area (ha.)
1	2	3	4
1	Andaman & Nicobar Island	08	19.59
2	Andhra Pradesh	205	19838.54
3	Arunachal Pradesh	16	103.47
4	Assam	82	166.88
5	Bihar	10	418.17
6	Chandigarh	0	00.00
7	Chhattisgarh	126	27220.44
8	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	0	0.00
9	Daman & Diu	0	0.00
10	Delhi	0	0.00
11	Goa	52	1863.25
12	Gujarat	55	9927.11
13	Haryana	0	0.00
14	Himachal Pradesh	60	1664.07
15	Jammu & Kashmir	0	0.00
16	Jharkhand	126	13804.58
17	Karnataka	169	12075.45
18	Kerala	1	29.20
19	Lakshdeep	0	0.00
20	Madhya Pradesh	174	15094.70
21	Maharashtra	119	3730.66
22	Manipur	0	0.00
23	Meghalaya	1	116.589
24	Mizoram	0	0.00
25	Nagaland	0	0.00
26	Orissa	172	18385.57
27	Pondichery	0	0.00
28	Punjab	1	0.002
29	Rajasthan	232	6880.39
30	Sikkim	1	0.05
31	Tamil Nadu	31	380.34
32	Tripura	17	27.31
33	Uttar Pradesh	5	2006.44
34	Uttarakhand	23	272.66
35	West Bengal	6	281.80
Total		1692	134307.23

B. Standard Terms and Conditions stipulated by the Central Government while according prior permission for diversion of forest land for mining activities

B.1. General Conditions Applicable to all projects including the mining Projects

(i) Legal status of forest land to remain unchanged.

(ii) Compensatory afforestation as per guidelines.

(iii) Transfer and mutation of non-forest land in favour of Forest Department, if applicable.

(iv) Notification of such land as Reserved Forest/Protected Forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

(v) User Agency to provide fuelwood preferably alternate fuel to the labourers and the staff working at the site so as to avoid any damage & pressure on adjacent forest areas.

(vi) The forest land shall not be used for any purpose other than that specified in the proposals.

(vii) Demarcation of lease area to be done on the ground at project cost using four feet high reinforced cement concrete pillars with serial numbers, forward & back bearings and distance from pillar to pillar.

(viii) Rehabilitation of Project affected families, if any.

(ix) Environmental clearance, if required.

B.2: Conditions applicable only to the mining projects

(i) Phased reclamation of mined area.

(ii) Safety zone area, its afforestation and fencing.

(iii) Afforestation on one and half times degraded forest land in lieu of the area used for safety zone.

(iv) In case of underground mines, areas on surface to be fencing and afforested.

B.3. Additional conditions applicable to large projects involving diversion of more than 500 ha. forest land or displacement of more than 1,000 persons irrespective of the area of forest land involved in each case (applicable only to the projects accorded approval on or after 04.01.2011)

(i) The user agency shall establish and operate a Vocational Training Institute having capacity to impart training in at-least five disciplines, to be decided by the State Government concerned in consultation with the user agency, for the benefits of the eligible unemployed youth in the project affected villages. The user agency should also endeavour to employ such trained manpower in their own industry or any other appropriate industry, preferably located in vicinity of the forest land being diverted; and

The user agency shall setup an independent Social Welfare Department/ Division and follow the subsequent condition of the project-affected and the project-displaced persons in such a way as to understand their socio-economic conditions before and after the project and take such corrective measures as are necessary to restore them to their original or better-than-original condition.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh in a written reply to a question by Shri S/Shri Narahari Mahato And Nripendra Nath Roy in Lok Sabha.