Industry biggies look at setting up IT parks in Gujarat

Around 12-15 informal proposals have been received by the state govt for various kinds of projects in the ICT sector

Buoyed by the electronics, IT and e-governance policies announced by the Government of Gujarat recently, several industry biggies have evinced interest for setting up IT parks in the state. Around 12-15 informal proposals have been received by the state government for various kinds of projects in the ICT sector.

Confirming the same, a senior state government official said, "After the declaration of the policies, we have received informal proposals for setting up IT parks, hardware and mobile manufacturing units in Gujarat from 12-15 major IT companies. We are hopeful these projects will fructify soon and see IT biggies coming to the state."

Among the three policies, the state government is looking to encourage new units as well as create one million jobs through the IT policy which aims to generate Rs 75000 crore worth turnover by 2020.

Benefits under the IT policy include 100 per cent waiver in the stamp duty and registration fees over purchase/lease or transfer of land for new units, 25 per cent subsidy for lease/rentals for new units coming up in IT parks, 30 per cent subsidy to new units for bandwidth charges with a ceiling of Rs 5 lakh per year for a period of two years, financial assistance upto Rs 2.5 crore to IT parks, and interest subsidy seven per cent for small and five per cent for SMEs.On the other hand, speaking on the sidelines of the 10th ACMA ICT SHOW - 2014, Govind Patel, minister of science and technology, Government of Gujarat said that the policies will propel Gujarat further ahead in the IT sector among other states.

When asked about the offline ICT retailers facing competition from e-commerce players, Patel said, "The Gujarat government will provide all kinds of incentives and support to offline ICT retailers to protect them against the e-commerce competition as and when required."

It needs to be mentioned here that recently Saurabh Patel, minister of finance, Government of Gujarat stated that the state government is studying tax structure as well as the business model of e-commerce portals to find out possible loopholes which might be giving them an edge over retailers in terms of pricing of products.