According to Council for EOUs and SEZs director-general LB Singhal the delay has been caused by some SEZ units which have expressed reservations on certain provisions of the rules. The council, therefore, wants to ensure that the viewpoints of these members are also taken into account before finalising the rules, says Mr Singhal says, adding there has been no difference of opinion between the finance and commerce ministries on the rules.

In fact, the issue of framing the SEZ rules were discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting held recently. It was attended among others by additional commerce secretary Vinay Bansal, customs department director AK Prasad, Kochi SEZ development commissioner Paul Antony, and Kandla SEZ development commissioner Yogendra Garg, besides Mr Singhal.

Mr Singhal says the council has been working out rules and regulations for some time now with a view to make these applicable to the EOU units on the lines of SEZs. Both the EOU and SEZ schemes have a great potential as their combined contribution to exports was nearly 32 per cent during the past decade. There is, therefore, a need for making coordinated efforts by all concerned to achieve a quantum jump in exports by these units.

The SEZ scheme became effective from April 1, 2000. So far, 21 SEZs have been approved on the basis of proposals received from states/private promoters. Of these, the SEZs at Indore, Salt Lake (Kolkata) and Jaipur are ready for operation. Those at Navi Mumbai and Maha Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Hassan (Karnataka) and Jodhpur (Rajasthan) have made substantial progress and sizeable land has also been acquired.

Under the current policy, supplies from domestic tariff area (DTA) units to SEZ units will be considered as exports by DTA units and supplies to DTA units from SEZs will be considered as imports by DTA units.

The government has also clarified that supplies from SEZ units will be governed by the provisions of the Customs Act and not by the provisions of the Central Excise Act.