Bhan, J. - (1.) This appeal by grant of leave is directed against the final judgment and order dated 3-4-2001 passed by the Madras High Court in Writ Appeal No. 943 of 1993 whereby the Division Bench has set aside the order passed by the single Judge of the High Court and dismissed the writ petition filed by the appellant.
(2.) Larsen and Toubro Ltd. - the appellant herein, has its workshop amongst other places within the Kandla Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the KFTZ) in the State of Gujarat. In the year 1986 it obtained an export order for Rs. 24 crores (48 million Malaysian Dollars) from the Malaysian Government for the construction of two steel bridges in Malaysia. The Working Group, a High Level Official Body of the Indian Government gave its approval of the appellants project and for fabrication required for the work to be done in the appellants workshop of KFTZ on the condition that there should be maximum utilization of indigenous steel as raw material and that any import of steel was to be done only after taking prior approval of the Working Group.
(3.) The units which are located in the Free Trade Zone like that of the appellant in KFTZ is entitled, inter alia, to the following facilities and incentives :- "(i) An assured supply of power and good quality of water, is available in these zones at reasonable rates. These zones are also well served by banks, clearing and forwarding agencies, postal and telecommunication facilities and customs clearance facilities. (ii) Simplified procedures coupled with single point clearance. (iii) Non-requirement of import licence as all imports into the zones have been placed under the Open General Licence (OGL). The customs duty is not leviable. (iv) Exemption from central excise duties an other levies on products manufactured within the zones. (v) Treating raw materials, components etc. supplied to these zones from rest of the country as exports and their eligibility for all export benefits. It means easy availability of high quality inputs at lower cost. (vi) The zones have all other infrastructural facilities like warehousing, postal, telecommunications and canteen facilities. (vii) Complete tax holiday for a specified numbers of years is also available. (viii) Foreign equity participation is permitted up to 100%. (ix) Capital invested by foreign investors/entrepreneurs including profits ploughed back in the project in the zone and dividends can be freely repatriated after deduction of applicable taxes. (x) The EPZ units are permitted to sell to the extent of 25% of their production in addition to 5% of the rejects in Domestic Market. (xi) Concessional financing facilities are available. ;