AMENDMENTS IN SEZ RULES 2006

All Notified SEZs are Now Deemed to be Multi Sector SEZs

· Minimum Built-up area Requirement Halved, thus minimum for Category ‘A’ Moved down to 50K sq.mts from 100K sq.mts

· Services Broad Banded to Include Financial Trading, Consultancy and Architect Services

[MoC&I GSR No. 940(E) Notification dated 17 December 2019]

G.S.R. 940(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 55 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (28 of 2005), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006, namely: -

1. Short title and commencement.- (1) These rules may be called the Special Economic Zones (3^rd Amendment) Rules, 2019.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006, (herein after referred to as the principal rules), in rule 2, in sub- rule (1), clauses (za), (zb) and (zc) shall be omitted.

3. In rule 5, -

(i) for sub-rule (2), the following shall be substituted, namely: -

“(2) The requirements of minimum area of land for a class or classes of Special Economic Zone in terms of sub- section (8) of section 3 shall be the following, namely:-

(a) A Special Economic Zone or Free Trade Warehousing Zone other than a Special Economic Zone for Information Technology or Information Technology enabled Services, Biotech or Health (other than hospital) service, shall have a contiguous land area of fifty hectares or more:

Provided that in case a Special Economic Zone is proposed to be set up in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Goa or in a Union territory, the area shall be twenty-five hectares or more.

(b) There shall be no minimum land area requirement for setting up a Special Economic Zone for Information Technology or Information Technology enabled Services, Biotech or Health (other than hospital) service, but a minimum built up processing area requirement shall be applicable, based on the category of cities, as specified in the following Table, namely: –

TABLE
Sl. No.	Categories of cities as per Annexure IV A	Minimum Built-up area requirement (proposed)
(1)	(2)	(3)
1.	Category ‘A’	50,000 sq.mts.
2.	Category ‘B’	25,000 sq. mts.
3.	Category ‘C’	15,000 sq. mts.

(c) The minimum processing area in any Special Economic Zone cannot be less than fifty per cent of the total area of the Special Economic Zone.

(d) All existing notified Special Economic Zone shall be deemed to be a multi-sector Special Economic Zone.

Explanation. – For the purpose of this clause, a “multi-sector Special Economic Zone” means a Special Economic Zone for more than one sector where Units may be setup for manufacture of goods falling in two or more sectors or rendering of services falling in two or more sectors or any combination thereof including trading and warehousing.”;

(ii) in sub-rule (7), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely: -

“Provided that the Board of Approval may, upon request in writing by the Developer, and after being satisfied that it is necessary and expedient to do so, grant extension beyond the said period of ten years for a further period of not exceeding one year, at a time, subject to maximum upto ten such extension.”;

(iii) after sub-rule (7), the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely: -

“(8) In case of a Special Economic Zone for Information Technology or Information Technology enabled Services, letter of approval shall be issued by the Approval Committee for services, which can be broad-banded with Information Technology or Information Technology enabled Services such as financial services, consultancy services, design services, architect services, commercial training or coaching services.”.

4. In the principal rules, the ‘Annexure IV’ shall be omitted.

5. In the principal rules, in ‘Annexure IV-A’, for the brackets and letters “(ba)”, the brackets and letter “(b)” shall be substituted.

[F.No. K.43014(22)/15/2019-SEZ]

Note: - The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub- section(i), vide notification number G.S.R 54(E), dated the 10th February, 2006 and last amended vide notification number G.S.R 200 (E), dated the 7th March, 2019.