With the Commerce Ministry unrelenting on the demand for cancellation of the Goa SEZs, the Centre and the State got into a fresh face-off Wednesday.
“The notified SEZ issue is over with the Government of India,” Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai told reporters here.
But Goa Chief Minister Digamabar Kamat said in Panaji that the state would not go back on its stand and would ask the Centre to review its decision of not denotifying the three Special Economic Zones.
“We are firm in our decision and there is no going back on our stand,” Kamat said adding that the state would approach the Centre on the issue again.
Facing opposition from political parties, including the ruling Congress, the Goa government in December last year had decided to scrap all the 15 SEZs including the three which had already been notified.
While the Commerce Ministry agreed to send show-cause notices to the 12 zones that were formally approved, it refused to cancel the ones which had already been notified.
The Ministry took a stand that the denotification of the three zones would be legally untenable since they were approved under the SEZ Act of 2005.
Even the promoters challenged the decision of the state government in the court.
-PTI
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