After the Netherlands, now India has introduced a work-from-home rule for all employees. On July 19, 2022, the Department of Commerce released a notification regarding the same.
A new rule 43A is added to the existing Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006 for this purpose. It happened after the industry requested a uniform policy for SEZs.
What is India’s New Work From Home Rule?
via:greatlearning
As per the new WFH policy, 50 percent of the workforce including those on contract can take the work from home option. This is the maximum cap on the employees who can avail of this facility.
However, this number can increase on the permission of Development Commissioner of respective SEZfor a valid reason. Same goes for maximum WFH duration which is set to one year.
All the units under Special Economic Zones should provide necessary resources and network support to such employees.
They cannot terminate the resource support on their own unless both employees agree on it.
The WFH policy also gives a transition period of 3 months for those already working from home. It is also applicable on four categories of employees:
- Offsite workers
- Employees working in IT
- Employees of Information Technology Enabled Services units
- Those whose work involves a lot of travelling
Also Read: New GST Rates Made Flour, Milk, Pulses Expensive, Other Items Got Cheaper
Special Economic Zones in India
via:thedollarbusiness
The new policy is only for those units under special economic zones. Currently, India has only 9 functional zones which are:
- Santa Cruz in Maharashtra
- Cochin in Kerala
- Chennai in Tamil Nadu
- Noida in Uttar Pradesh
- Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh
- Kandla in Gujrat
- Surat in Gujrat
- Falta in West Bengal
- Jaipur in Rajasthan
In April 2000, first SEZ policy was introduced to improve economic growth and promote export processing model. It is applicable at both, Centre and State level.
SEZ Act was introduced later in 2005 to simplify the single window clearance procedures and maintenance of SEZs at both levels.
However, the main aim was to create more employment opportunities and increase direct foreign investment.
SEZs Rules are applicable to areas of size range 1000 -5000 hectares. These areas have different economic regulations.