The government has  informed the Lok Sabha that 18 special economic zones have been scrapped on the back of developers being impacted by the global economic slowdown.

“Requests for de-notification by the developers have been approved by the Board of Approval in respect of 18 SEZs…,” Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Scindia said that global economic slowdown has been cited as the “main reason for the request for de-notification”.

If a SEZ is de-notified, the developers have to return all the fiscal benefits (if they have availed any) before they could exit their projects.

The Board of Approval (BoA), is an inter-ministerial body headed by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar.

Replying to another query, Scindia said approval for 349 proposals for IT/ITES/Electronic Hardware related SEZs has been given, of which 221 have been notified.

“A total of 69 (IT) SEZs are already exporting,” Scindia said.

A total of 576 tax free zones have been approved by the BoA, of which 114 are operational.