Around 55% land bank of SEZs in Tamil Nadu lying vacant

Around 55 per cent of land in the 36 operational special economic zones (SEZs) in Tamil Nadu is lying vacant owing to various reasons, including the recent economic slowdown.

A senior official in the ministry of commerce and industry while disclosing the state of affairs of SEZs in the state, said economic activity in them would revive with the anticipated industry revival. 

Delivering a keynote address during a roadshow organised by the Tamil Nadu Association of SEZ Infrastructure Developers and the Export Promotion Council, AK Choudhary, development commissioner - commerce and industry ministry, said, “Of the 56 notified SEZs in Tamil Nadu, around 36 were operational in which, almost 50-55 per cent of the land bank was vacant. Around 2,600 acres of land bank was available in these SEZs,” he said. 

However, the official stated tax disputes had not affected investments flowing into SEZs in Tamil Nadu. 

Several tax disputes, where the state government had imposed tax on companies in the SEZ including the case of Nokia India in Sriperumbudur, are currently under the consideration of the Madras high court. 

The SEZs in Tamil Nadu posted an export turnover of Rs 79,556 crore during 2013-14. Of this, the IT sector accounted for around Rs 50,000 crore. Employment stood at 269,000. 

He added the takers for SEZs in Tier II and III cities were lower compared with the expectations, with 30 per cent occupancy. However, this is expected to improve with the anticipated growth. 

The number of operational SEZs had gone up from 28 in 2010-11 to 36 in 2013-14, while the established ones shot up from 201 to 445 during the period.

Of the 36 SEZs, the government owns only one -- MEPZ-SEZ in Chennai -- while the rest had been developed by private players. 

SEZs investors in Tamil Nadu include Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T, Sterlite, Infosys, CTS, TCS, Marg, Foxconn, Hexaware, Syntel and international investors such as Dell, Timken, Robert Bosch and Sanmina. 

The Centre is developing more IT SEZs and a 50,000 sft of IT space is being created at Hosur and Salem. This is expected to be completed in the next couple of years. IT SEZs in Tier-II locations like Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and Tirunelveli are attracting more investors, said Atul Anand, managing director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (Elcot).

Photograph: Reuters