Gujarat unveils new IT policy, expects Rs. 25k cr exports in 5 yrs

Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday unveiled a new IT/ITES policy that is expected to take the State's export from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore in five years. It also promises to generate one lakh new direct jobs in the next five years.

Launched at a formal event in Gandhinagar's GIFT city, the new policy aims at replacing the 2016-2021 policy which had promised to create 10 lakh jobs over the last five years. It offers both capital and operational support to IT firms making new investments in the State. For the first time, as claimed by the government, the policy provides support for both capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenditures. The CAPEX support has been raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 200 crore for mega projects.

For the normal projects, a 25 per cent CAPEX support will be given under the limit of maximum Rs 50 crore and up to Rs 200 crore limit will be for the mega projects. Fifteen per cent OPEX support will be given for normal projects upto Rs 20 crore every year and for mega projects upto Rs 40 crore every year. The OPEX will include lease rental, bandwidth, cloud rental, patent and power tariff expenditure.

Two special incentives have been included in the policy by the Gujarat government to encourage IT employment. Besides, an Employment Generation Incentive (EGI) upto Rs 60,000 per employee and a redemption upto 100 per cent for the EPF contribution of the employer by Atmanirbhar Gujarat Rojgar Sahay have also been included.

A support of up to Rs 50,000 (males) - Rs 60,000 (females) or 50 per cent of one month's CTC will be given to the IT firm for hiring and retaining a new local employee for a year. Apart from this, IT/ITES units will be able to claim reimbursement on the employer's statutory contribution under the Employees Provident Fund. The State government will reimburse 100 per cent of the EPF amount for female employees and 75 per cent for male employees.

Besides, the government is also providing CAPEX support of a maximum of Rs 100 crore for creating IT office space in an IT city or township. For IT/ITES units opting to start operations in coworking IT office spaces under the government facilitated model, a fiscal support of Rs 10,000 will be given on a per seat basis for the first two years. Thereafter, Rs 5,000 will be given for 3-5 years.