What is the DESH Bill?

The Development of Enterprises and Service Hubs (DESH) Bill.  

The DESH bill is expected to be tabled in the monsoon session of the Parliament. The bill is expected to bring about a paradigm shift by moving the focus from exports to domestic investments, eliminating compliance and procedural challenges, and integrating multiple models of economic zones such as SEZs, coastal economic zones, and food and textile parks. In transforming the existing SEZs into enterprises and service hubs, the focus will be on boosting economic activity and the domestic market, integrating the various models, facilitating ease of doing business and generating employment. DESH is also expected to enable states to play a greater role in the integration of all existing industrial parks within states with existing SEZs across the country.

The new bill is expected to ensure tax rebates/refunds/financial subsidies to developers/companies in the hub, in a manner similar to the existing SEZs, but with no export compulsion NFE obligation. Existing ports, airports, inland.

The customs duty only be paid on the inputs used and not on the expensive final goods. The Bill also seeks to integrate existing industrial estates such as textiles and food parks by converting them into developmental hubs. India’s target of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy by FY 2026, with a contribution of USD 3 trillion and over USD 1 trillion from the services and manufacturing sector respectively, requires accelerated investments. While India’s service sector continues to show appreciable growth, the manufacturing sector has been lagging, necessitating urgent interventions. While the 2005 SEZ Act was brought in with the hope of making India a manufacturing powerhouse of the world, it had very limited positive effect. The 262 operational SEZs set up over this period currently have only 5,576 operational units and account for less than 20 per cent of the country’s exports.