Andhra IT exports grow 24.5%

Andhra Pradesh registered an export turnover of Rs 32,509 crore from the IT/ITeS industry during 2008-09, a growth of 24.5 per cent over the previous year's Rs 26,122 crore.

This includes Rs 4,231.93 crore of export revenue, which the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services, now Mahindra Satyam, is stated to have earned during the year.

"The Satyam figures for the year ending March 31, 2009, have been submitted by the company. We have not done any verification and have gone by what the company has given," said P Venugopal, director of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and development commissioner of  AP special economic zone (IT/ITeS).

It may be recalled that Satyam's accounts were being restated following the confession of its founder B Ramalinga Raju that the financial figures were inflated.

Venugopal said six  IT/ITeS companies had contributed more than Rs 1,000 crore each to the total export turnover of the state from this sector. These include Wipro, Infosys, Microsoft, Prithvi and TCS. Small companies together accounted for Rs 3,000 crore, which include 411 units whose turnover ranged from Rs 1 crore to Rs 100 crore each and 273 units with a turnover of less than Rs 1 crore each.

In the last financial year, 69 new companies, including 9 foreign companies, were registered with the STPI while 22 units were set up in the state under the SEZ scheme. Besides, 52 existing companies expanded their operations.

The investments by the newly-registered units had been projected at Rs 510 crore with domestic companies accounting for Rs 497.26 crore and foreign companies for the remaining Rs 12.74 crore. Investment under the SEZ scheme so far reached Rs 3739.29 crore as against a projected figure of Rs 16,069.17 crore for a five-year period.

STPI director general, N Krishnan, said the all-India tentative IT/ITeS exports stood at Rs 2,04,662 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs 1,80,155 crore in the previous year, registering a growth of 20.65 per cent. However, the domestic revenues of this sector increased by only around 10 per cent to 1,09,200 crore from Rs 94,254 crore during the same period.

In view of this, Krishnan said that there was a need to evolve strategies to accelerate the domestic operations of IT/ITeS companies.

State information technology minister, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, said plans were afoot to provide land and other facilities to small IT/ITeS companies. He wanted extension of tax benefits for STPI by another three so that the growth of the IT/ITES sector is sustained "during these tough years."