Latest Property News on 'Special Economic Zones'

Embassy Property Developments Ltd in Talks with Temasek and HDFC Property Ventures for Private Equity Placement

Southern real estate major Embassy Property Developments Ltd is holding talks with Singapore’s Temasek and HDFC Property Ventures for private equity placement topping $100 million even as the Bangalore headquartered developer is working on an initial public offer (IPO) in 2011.

Temasek could be co-investing with HDFC Property Ventures, which has made three large project level investments with Embassy in the past. Temasek is an investor in the $800-million HDFC fund and has the option of investing along with it, VCCircle has reported, citing banking sources.
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SEZ Developers Urge Govt to Retain SEZ Act

Special economic zone (SEZ) developers are peeved over the continued uncertainty created by the direct tax code (DTC) drafts, released by the union finance ministry, over tax benefits prescribed by the SEZ Act.

They want the central government to retain the SEZ Act, as passed by the Parliament, as they fear linking it with the proposed DTC regime, to come into force from April 1 2011, will eventually dilute the prescribed tax benefits. The second draft of the DTC, released on June 15, 2010, limits benefits under income tax, minimum alternate tax (MAT) and dividend distribution tax to only those units that exist or come into existence in SEZs by March 31, 2011. Read More »

Govt Gives Nod to IT/ITeS SEZ in Kochi

The Centre has granted formal approval for the development of an IT/ITeS Special Economic Zone on approx 31 acres of Phase II of the Infopark project in Kochi. This decision was taken at a meeting of the Board of Approvals in the Ministry of Commerce in New Delhi.

The second phase of Infopark Kochi is planned on 160 acres in Kunnathunadu and Puthencuruz villages. The park will offer the first plug-and-play BPO facility in the State. The budget for the current financial year has an allocation Rs 50 crore towards infrastructure development schemes in phase II of Infopark. Read More »

SEZ Developers Concerned Over Adverse Impact of DTC

The likelihood of new units in Special Economic Zones losing Income-Tax exemptions in the Direct Taxes Code regime has stepped up representations to the Centre.
According to the DTC revised draft, units coming up in SEZs after the implementation of the Code from April 1, 2011, would not get I-T holiday.

Many SEZ developers, including infrastructure major GMR, have written to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, the finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma, and State chief ministers about their concerns on the adverse impact of DTC on their SEZ projects. Read More »

Income Tax Benefit for SEZ units under Direct Tax Code likely

The Centre, on Tuesday, said requests from certain quarters to provide income tax (IT) benefits for Special Economic Zones units in the Direct Taxes Code would be considered before the proposed code is finalised for replacing the Income Tax Act.

“The draft Direct Taxes Code (DTC) proposes investment linked deduction for developers of SEZs as against profit linked deduction under the Income Tax Act, 1961, and does not envisage any specific tax benefit for the units located in SEZs against the profit linked deduction currently available under the Income Tax Act,” minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam said in the Rajya Sabha. Read More »

Gold Souk plans gems & jewellery SEZ in Gurgaon

Gold Souk – the jewellery mall developer – is planning to set up a gems and jewellery special economic zone (SEZ) with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in Gurgaon. The company plans to start work on the project within this financial year.We have got 40 acres from the Haryana government. It is an ambitious project. We plan to have residential apartments named Gold Souk City, apart from having gems and jewellery manufacturers from Thailand and Dubai who will open their units in India,” Gold Souk Vice-Chairman and Joint Managing Director Ashish Gupta said.

A formal announcement of the project is expected in the next couple of months. “We are at the design stage now. We are working out how much percentage of land should individually be designated for malls, residential and the other commercial offerings,” he added. According to Gupta, the company is looking for private equity (PE) players to fund a portion of the project. Read More »

Gujarat to Set up Special SEZ for Defence Sector

With the increased efforts by the Ministry of Defence of opening up opportunities for private sector, the Gujarat government also seems to be leaving no stone unturned. The state government is planning to set up a dedicated special economic zone (SEZ) for offsets in the defence sector. “We have floated the idea of setting up a dedicated SEZ for the defence sector, that too primarily for offsets, to the ministry of defence. We can allot land in any of the special investment regions (SIR). It is now upto the ministry of defence to support us in developing the SEZ,” Saurabh Patel, minister of state for industries, finance, energy and petrochemicals, Government of Gujaratm, said.

Offsets are counter-trade obligations imposed by an importing country, in this case India, upon the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that mandate the transfer of critical technologies and production of components. India obligates that offset related investments be strictly limited to defence. Currently, a foreign supplier has to invest back or purchase from India 30 per cent of the value of the deal. Read More »

Work Restarts at Mahindra Satyam SEZ in Hyderabad

Mahindra Satyam, the new avatar of the scam-hit consulting and IT services firm Satyam Computer Services Ltd, has announced the commencement of construction work at its special economic zone (SEZ) - the Mahindra Satyam Infocity Campus at Hyderabad. Construction on the SEZ, spread across 26 acres and with a proposed built-up area of 400,000 sq ft, has already started. The first phase of the campus is expected to be ready for occupation within the next six months and will seat around 5,000 associates.

The SEZ inauguration coincides the completion of one year of the Satyam Computer’s take-over by the Tech Mahindra subsidiary Venture Bay Pvt Ltd. Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra campuses also celebrated ‘a year of collaboration’ of minds, hearts, competencies and vision. Corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid and Mahindra vice chairman Anand Mahindra addressed the associates at the Infocity campus, and shared their appreciation for their hard work and the vision for the future. Read More »

Reliance’s Jamnagar SEZ Witnesses Quantum Leap, Touch Rs 80000 cr

After hitting the slowdown bump when it commissioned its second refinery in December 2008, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)’s special economic zone (SEZ) in Jamnagar has finished its first full operational year in March 2010 with a quantum leap forward. Emerging as the single largest export zone in the country, the Jamnagar SEZ has seen its export nearly touch Rs 80,000 crore till March 2010.

“The physical exports from RIL’s Jamnagar SEZ stood at Rs 71,000 crore while Rs 8,000 crore has come from deemed exports. It is the largest SEZ in the country in terms of exports,” said Upendra Vasishth, Development Commissioner (Jamnagar SEZ). With a capacity of 29 million tonne per annum, the Jamnagar Export Refinery Project (JERP), located in an SEZ, added nearly 20 per cent to the country’s refinery capacity. Read More »

Govt Approves Six New SEZs

The government on Friday approved the setting up of six new special economic zones or SEZs, areas which receive special tax and duty concessions for manufacturing and exports. Among those approved are a solar SEZ by infrastructure company Lanco in Chhattisgarh and a copper SEZ by Sterlite Industries in Tamil Nadu. The approvals also allayed fears that the SEZ policy was losing steam. Companies like DLF , India’s biggest real estate developer, had wanted to surrender their SEZ licences during the downturn of last year.

Against a pre-recession tally of 577 approved SEZs, the total number of approved SEZs stood at 580, including the six approved on Friday, the ministry of commerce and industry said. The number of approved SEZs had fallen to 573 in December last year and to 571 in February this year as some of the developers bailed out of the projects on the basis of perceived commercial inviability. Both exports and employment also rose during the first nine months of the current financial year, the ministry added. Direct employment went from 3.55 lakh to 4.9 lakh while exports from SEZs rose even faster. Read More »