New Delhi, Nov 21 (PTI) The commerce ministry has put on hold a decision on requests from Vedanta Group and Raheja Developers for relaxation of SEZ rules relating to land contiguity.

Sources said a decision has been put on hold after representatives of the Revenue Department, who were present in the last Board of Approval (BoA) meeting on November 18, raised concerns of possibility of tax evasion.

Vedanta Group had requested that a railway track be allowed through non-processing areas of its SEZ so that coal could be transported to its group firm Sterlite Energy's power plant.

Sterlite Energy has set up a 2400 MW power plant adjacent to Vedanta Aluminium's SEZ.

While the Vedanata Aluminium SEZ needs to meet its energy requirements from the Sterlite power plant, the latter requires 17 lakh tonne coal annually SEZ land contiguity requests paused as tax-evasion concerns delay approval for infrastructure through non-processing areas. Requests to relax SEZ land contiguity rules for Vedanta Group and Raheja Developers were placed on hold after Revenue Department representatives raised tax evasion concerns about permitting a railway track through non processing areas to transport coal to an adjacent group power plant, preserving further procedural review of infrastructure exceptions and affiliated energy supply arrangements.