Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government has sacrificed Rs 77, 694 crore revenue during 2012-13 and 2014-15 for promoting special economic zones, which are export hubs. The revenue foregone on account of concessions availed by the SEZ developers and units under certain provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961, as well as customs duty and excise duty availed during 2012-13 was aggregated at Rs 23,305.40 crore. Further, in 2013-14 and 2014-15, the estimated revenue foregone was Rs 27,855.10 crore and Rs 26,533.87 crore respectively.
Sitharaman further said that to achieve the SEZ objectives, the fiscal concessions and duty benefits allowed to SEZs are in the way of incentives. She also said that as on December 2015 there are as many as 205 operational SEZs. Exports from such zones in 2014-15 stood at Rs 4, 63,770 crore.
Highlighting the coastal economic zones (CEZs), Sitharaman said that as part of the Sagarmala Programme, CEZ is conceptualized as a spatial-economic region that will be around and integrally linked to a group of major and minor ports. Moreover, she said that once the CEZs are identified and their high level perspective plans are developed, the detailed master plans leading to identification of projects and their detailed project reports (DPRs) would be prepared.