The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approved an ‘investor-friendly’ Information Technology policy on Friday, offering a slew of incentives to various categories of units and seeking to transform AP into a ‘Silicon Corridor’ on the lines of Silicon Valley in the United States by 2020.
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said the State was expecting through the new policy to attract investments to the tune of Rs. 12,000 crore in IT sector and Rs. 30,000 crore in electronics in the coming years. The aim of the government was to facilitate creation of five lakh jobs.
The Cabinet decided to exempt IT industry from statutory power cuts, labour laws and Shops & Establishments Act to suit requirements of overseas clients and declare it as essential service under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).
The policy, valid for five years, seeks to develop Mega IT Hub at Visakhapatnam and IT Hubs at Vijayawada, Kakinada, Tirupati and Anantapur with walk-to-work and bicycle-to-work concepts. A transparent policy would be adopted to develop through PPP mode infrastructure facilities in the form of IT Towers, IT Parks and IT zones.
Mr. Reddy said the government proposed to develop ITIRs in Visakhapatnam and Tirupati initially and Tirupati-Anantapur corridor later. He said every family in the State would be made e-literate and broadband connectivity would be provided to every village to make Andhra Pradesh a ‘Digital State’. Focus would also be on enhancing quality technical education to meet industry standards.
The IT Minister announced that a high-powered single window clearance unit would be created for granting approvals and clearances. It would be supported by state-of-the-art centralised help desk on 24x7 basis, duly leveraging the e-Biz portal set up of Government of India. He said approvals would be deemed to have been given in case they were not granted within four weeks and a provision would be made in relevant legislations or rules to this effect.
Mr. Reddy said that a rebate on the cost of land would be provided at Rs. 60,000 per employee for Mega IT projects which employ more than 5,000 or more people in a span of five years. A rebate of Rs. 40,000 would be given to other IT projects subject to 80 per cent of the land cost. In case the premises was taken on lease basis/ rent basis, a rental subsidy at Rs. 10 per sft per month would be provided for three years per employee. Besides, an investment subsidy of 10 per cent of the value of capital expenditure, other land, would be provided.
The policy also contained a series of common incentives for MSME, SC/ST and women entrepreneurs and for rural IT units. An empowered mission for electronics & IT promotion would be established to give fillip to the development of the sector.
He said the budgetary allocation for IT sector this year was proposed to be Rs. 500 crore.
