In sharp contrast to the categorical stance taken by his secretary on Wednesday, Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, on Thursday, said the Centre can review all special economic zones in Goa as it does not want to thrust SEZs on the states.

“Centre can review all Goa SEZs,” Mr Kamal Nath told reporters after meeting Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat here.

Mr Kamal Nath said there was “absolute provision” in the SEZ Act for everything, including review of the notified zones.

Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai had said on Wednesday the Centre cannot de-notify three SEZs from Goa since they had become “legal entities” after their notification.

Mr Kamat, on his part, said the state government would send the formal communication to the Centre by next Monday. “Ground realities are different. By and large, people (of Goa) do not want SEZ,” Mr Kamat said, adding the state government would go as per law. Goa government had on December 31 scrapped all 15 SEZs, including the notified ones, following widespread protests from the ruling Congress and opposition BJP.

Stating that there was no provision in law to denotify the SEZ, Mr Pillai said there could be legal consequences in the event of denotification. “Meditab is said to have invested more than Rs 500 crore in its SEZ. Duty-free equipment has also started coming in. How will the state government compensate the developers?’’ Mr Pillai asked.

Once notified, an SEZ becomes a legal entity and, therefore, it can not be denotified, the Commerce Secretary said.