After what seemed like eons, the State government finally unveiled its information technology policy which is aimed at promoting IT, ITES, and the ESDM sectors. To attract firms from outside, the policy offers a slew of incentives, tax sops and a promise of fast track clearances for projects through the Investment Promotion Board. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar stated that the policy would take the government closer to achieving its dream of bringing in investments worth Rs 25,000 crore and creation of 50,000 jobs. In reality thought, formulating the policy was the easy part; the hard part of getting companies on board starts now. A consultant is expected to be appointed soon to guide the government and plans for the Chimbel IT park and Tuem are expected to be finalized next week.
The incentives and tax sops offered in the policy are obviously aimed at drawing big names. This has always been the aim and till date all governments have failed miserably in achieving it. In the meanwhile, around 200 local startups have sprouted all over the State and two incubation centres are giving birth to more. These are essentially small companies with 10 or 15 employees, although a few larger ones exist. Their needs are different. The government has taken their demands on board and has offered a salary subsidy, free leases, one-time capital grant of Rs 2 lakh and free internet access worth Rs 1 lakh per year.
The State aims to draw at least 10 leading companies to set up shop here and to achieve this it has offered 100 per cent remission of stamp duty on lese of land or office buildings, 100 per cent reimbursement of central sales tax for a period of five years, 100 per cent waiver of entry tax on raw material for five years, 200 per cent FAR on buildings and power at a concessional rate. It is clear that the government is pulling out all the stops to kick start an IT bull run.
IT players look at many factors before taking the decision to relocate or build new units. Among them is availability of trained staff. It is learnt that Lava, which was supposed to set up a unit at Tuem eventually changed its mind due to staffing issues. Goa has a large number of engineering colleges and ITI institutes and all must be geared to provide companies with required manpower, because getting the same from outside raises housing issues.
The ideal way of building IT parks is by allowing private parties to construct infrastructure and lease it out to private players. However, the last experiment with such a model ended in utter disaster and the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat at Dona Paula is a stark reminder of how things can go wrong if the basic principles and policies are not in place. As a rule IT players prefer the plug-and-play model. They lack the patience for permission-seeking and construction. It is too tedious and takes too long. Only big players, with deep pockets, can afford to do it and much depends on whether the State can draw at least one big name to fire off the IT campaign.
