Special economic zones that had slipped down the government's priority list are back in favour as desperate government looks for ways to revive exports. The upcoming foreign trade policy is likely to extend sops such as focus market scheme and focus product scheme to make SEZs attractive.So far, these incentives were available only to domestic tariff areas or DTA, an area outside the SEZs. "SEZs are generally not a part of the foreign trade policy. However, in these times of sagging exports we are planning to announce a set of incentives like extending focus market scheme and focus product scheme to boost exports and make SEZs attractive," said a commerce ministry official.Focus market scheme helps offset high freight cost and other externalities to select international markets to enhance India's export competitiveness in these markets.

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com