The Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the government is in the process of forming a group to study necessary changes in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy. SEZs, which emerged as major export hubs in India, contribute significantly to the country’s total outbound shipments.
Prabhu has pointed out that the developers and units of these zones enjoy certain fiscal and non-fiscal incentives such as no licence is required for import, full freedom for subcontracting and no routine examination of cargo for export/import by customs authorities. They also enjoy direct and indirect tax benefits.
In order to address issues pertaining to the rubber sector, the minister said that the government has decided to constitute a task force on the commodity for finding out short term solutions and formulating long term strategies to tackle the problems. He added that the members of the task force include representatives of state and central government. He further said that the effort will be to work towards a rubber policy in consultation with state governments.