As SEZ developers continue to be haunted by imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT)

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and dividend distribution tax, the commerce ministry, on Wednesday, said it might re-look at the land ceiling of 5,000 hectare for multiproduct special economic zones (SEZs).

“Land issues are critical.

I think the land size is something that needs to be looked at again definitely as getting 5,000 hectares of land at one go is now a pipe dream. It's not going to happen even in the next couple of years,“ commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said. He was speaking at a 7th International SEZ Convention organised by Assocham.

The issue of land requirement for SEZs is likely to be reviewed by a Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, soon. This will be the second time when maximum permitted land size for SEZs will be pruned owing to difficulty in acquiring such huge stretches of land. The GoM had earli er lowered the land ceiling for SEZs from 10,000 hectares to 5,000 hectares.

In fact, citing issues of labour, land and infrastructure as bottlenecks for the economy, Khullar urged SEZ developers to move out of metros to hinterlands for future developments, as both land and labour would be comparatively cheap there.

Currently, SEZs in India are mainly concentrated in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. These six states contribute about 92 per cent to the country's total exports from SEZs.