Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Tuesday unveiled a new IT/ITES policy 2022-27, that offers both capital and operational support to IT firms making new investments in the state. It promises to generate one lakh new direct jobs in the next five years.
The policy, launched at a formal event at a club in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, replaces the 2016-2021 policy which had promised to create 10 lakh jobs over the last five years.
Patel said the new policy would take the state to “newer heights in the IT sector” and would propel an eight-fold growth in IT exports from Rs 3,101 crore to Rs 25,000 crore. Currently, IT comprises less than one per cent of the total exports from Gujarat.
For the first time, the policy provides support for both capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenditures. While CAPEX support has been raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 200 crore for mega projects, the policy – in a first – will provide OPEX support that will range from Rs 20-Rs 40 per year for the policy duration of five years. The OPEX will include lease rental, bandwidth, cloud rental, patent and power tariff expenditure.
For the first time, the policy will also provide an employment generation incentive where a support of up to Rs 50,000 (males) – Rs 60,000 (females) or 50% 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% of the EPF amount for female employees and 75% for male employees.
Apart from this, 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.
