Govt. working on SEZ reforms: Commerce Secretary Barthwal

The Centre is working on SEZ reforms to ensure smooth movement of goods without affecting competitiveness in export markets.

The Centre is working on reforms in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) domain so that movement of goods between domestic tariff area (DTA) and SEZ space is carried out smoothly without affecting the competitiveness of goods in the export markets, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said on Saturday.

During the pandemic two years ago, many office spaces in the SEZ areas had been vacated due to ‘work from home’ practice initiated by the occupants. Mr. Barthwal said this had led to the demarcation of the SEZs into SEZ and DTA spaces.

“Scale economies have become very important nowadays. Reforms in the SEZ are in the offing so that movement of goods from SEZ to DTA and vice-versa are not affected rendering goods produced becoming less competitive,” Mr. Barthwal said at a symposium organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce. He said the foreign trade policy (FTP) had been framed keeping in mind the global value chain. “The industry, which had always sought protection in the past, will now have to integrate with the global value chain and look at where the competitive advantage lay,” he added.