Odisha government to offer lucrative incentives to attract IT projects

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government is all set to offer special incentives for mega IT projects and parks along with capital subsidy, power incentives and tax benefits to encourage large investments in IT/ITeS and electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector.

As per the draft IT Policy 2025, which will be introduced after getting the cabinet nod, the government has proposed an incentive of 30 per cent (pc) of fixed capital investment (FCI) for projects less than Rs 50 crore and those in the investment category of more than Rs 50 crore but less than Rs 100 crore.

The capital subsidy will, however, be 25 pc of FCI for projects of more than Rs 100 crore but less than Rs 200 crore and 20 pc for investment of more than Rs 200 crore. The projects in non-BDA and CDA areas will get an additional 10 pc of FCI as reimbursement.

Greenfield IT parks will be eligible for reimbursement of 30 pc (up to Rs 25 crore) for investment of Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore, 25 pc (up to Rs 40 crore) for Rs 100-Rs 200 crore and 20 pc (up to Rs 50 crore) for over Rs 200 crore investment.

For IT parks, the government will extend 100 pc exemption of stamp duty on first transaction and 50 pc on second transaction on lease/sale agreement of land or built-up space allotted to them. Capital subsidy will be 20 pc (up to Rs 75 crore) of FCI for investment of Rs 100-Rs 500 crore, 15 pc (up to Rs 120 crore) for investment of Rs 500-Rs 1,000 crore and 15 pc (up to Rs 200 crore) for investment of over Rs 1,000 crore.

“The government will also reimburse 15 pc (up to Rs 25 lakh) of the cost of developing solar power plant and 25 pc (up to Rs 10 crore per unit) for new plant and machinery for the green measures like waste water treatment facilities while parks with 50 pc waste water recovery will be provided up to 50 pc (up to Rs 10 crore) capital subsidy on cost of relevant equipment,” the draft policy read.

The state has mooted a proposal to constitute an innovation and acceleration fund with an allocation of Rs 1,000 crore to provide financial support to companies/matured deep-tech startups in IT and related sectors.

Among other incentives, eligible IT units/towers/parks will be provided 100 per cent exemption from payment of electricity duty and power tariff of Rs 2 per unit will be reimbursed for a period of five years. They will be eligible for reimbursement of 100 pc of net SGST paid, overall limited to 200 per cent of the cost of plant and machinery and get interest subsidy at 5 per cent per annum (up to Rs 10 crore) on long-term loans availed from recognised financial institutions and banks for a period of five years.