Kohima: The audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the Government of N agaland for the year ended 31st March 2011 has said that the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act, 2005 was passed by the Parliament in May 2005 with an objective to generate additional economic activity of an earmarked exporting area and zone through promotion of exports and investment from domestic and foreign sources, creation of employment opportunities and development of infrastructure facilities.
The CAG report tabled the Nagaland Assembly on Friday said as there was no entrepreneurs to take up the projects under EPIP, the company proposed (July 2009) to Government of India (GoI) for conversion of Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) into an SEZ to Agro- Food processing sector. Government of Nagaland (GoN) also allotted another 50 acres of land adjacent EPIP in addition to 100 acres of land earlier allotted.
The proposal was approved (July 2009) by the GoI at an estimated cost of Rs. 35 crore, which included the infrastructure created for EPIP.
The project besides creating employment opportunities for 3000 persons was expected to earn Rs. 2 to 3 crores from exports in the initial years and Rs. 10 to 20 crores per annum after achieving optimum capacity utilization, the report said. Scrutiny (April 2013) of records revealed that the company received Rs. 17.50 crore (GoI – Rs. 8.50 crore + GoN- Rs. 9 crore) during 2007-08 to 2011-12 for development of additional infrastructure facilities, of which an amount of Rs. 5.27 crore was utilized. It was, however, observed that the company could not find entrepreneurs who were interested to set up industrial units and factories in the project area developed under EPIP and SEZ scheme till date (April 2013), the report said adding,
Thus, the report said, due to unrealistic assessment of users’ requirement and potential number of interested entrepreneurs, the infrastructure facilities developed for EPIP and SEZ schemes remained unproductive since 2001 defeating the scheme objectives. (UNI)
