The three-day event concluded on a high note as visitors streamed into the exhibition area to have a last glimpse of the stalls. Meanwhile, number of industry delegates interacted with the speakers, including government representatives, at the conference sessions to deliberate on topics such as ‘Fostering Development through Industrial Parks, Technology Parks, Textile Parks, Free Trade Zones, Export Zones, etc.’.
Talking about the need to continue with fiscal incentives, Rajiv Chugh, Partner & National Leader, Policy Advisory & Speciality Services, E & Y India, said, “When the SEZ Act was enacted, there were some pillars that were built-in to ensure its success. The first pillar was fiscal incentives to be provided to developers and units in SEZs. Additionally, provision was made to guarantee regulatory freedom, comprising a ‘Single Window’ mechanism, thereby allowing foreign investment through the automatic route. Hence, ‘Ease of Doing Business’ was the backbone of how the regulatory freedom was envisaged. There was also focus on creating supportive infrastructure for these SEZs to emerge as low-cost manufacturing hubs that would create jobs. However, today fiscal incentives have been stopped by the Finance Act of 2016.”
He further added, “There are currently 231 operational SEZ and 421 formal approvals are already in place. If you look at the gap, there are 142 SEZ that are yet to go operational. These 231 operational SEZs have generated around Rs. 4,000 billion revenue, have created 2 million jobs annually, and generated further income for the government through indirect taxation of the salaried income. This is a huge social benefit. With a new budget scheduled in the coming months, SEZ tax holidays should be reconsidered.”
“For the Special Economic Zones to be successful, the Government of India and private sector should consider setting up sector-specific supply chains to ultimately include the buyer and his capability”, highlighted Shri Babu Lal Jain, Founder & Chairman Emeritus, WICS Connect Group.
Speaking about the expo, Shri Siddharth Singh, Chairman, WICS, India, said, “We are extremely happy with the response that we have received for this first edition of Global Economic Zones Expo & Convention. The conference got off on a right footing with visionary remarks on SEZs by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog, and the role of SEZs by Shri Anup Wadhawan, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. We had participation from the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Urban Development, Indian Railways and the state governments of Haryana as our State Partner. We also had participation from the State governments of Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and most of the government SEZs such as Noida, Magalore, Kandla, Dahej, Falta, and private SEZs like Adani Ports SEZ (Developer Partner), Mahindra, Reliance, Sri City, GIFT City and TATA Steel SEZ.
We also had very good representation and discussions from consultants and think tanks from international organisations as well as government bodies and private participants. We are sure that the recommendations that come out of this Convention will go a long way in guiding the government to further fine-tune and refine the SEZ act and rules and regulations concerning SEZs.”
“As an exhibitor, our experience has been fruitful. While other shows and events bring in many unconnected visitors, at this event we had the opportunity to interact first hand with government officials and other key policy makers. Next time, we would like this event to be at a larger-scale,” observed an exhibitor.
Concluding on a positive note, Shri Prem Behl, Chairman, Exhibitions India Group said, “The world’s largest democracy has taken a leap forward in the last decade. Today, India is the fastest growing major economy in the world and is expected to be one of the top three economic powers over the next 10-15 years. Our government welcomes hundreds of overseas companies to invest, while Indians have pro-actively adopted a global dimension to expand their businesses. A booming manufacturing sector, a huge population comprising millions of youth, and global majors seeking strategic partnerships, together provide an ideal environment for the SEZ concept to flourish in India.”
