Setting up special economic zones for information technology appears to be the flavour of the season. Delhi-based construction company DLF is the latest to join the SEZ bandwagon.
It has plans to set up half-a-dozen IT SEZs across the country, including one each in Delhi and Chandigarh. The company is planning investments of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) in the SEZs.
Similarly, former BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya is finalising the contours of a 110-acre IT park, being carved out of his 1,300-acre leather park on the outskirts of Kolkata.
The move is creating a lot of buzz with several IT companies vying with each other to book plots in the IT park. In its application to the commerce department, Dalmiya's company has claimed that Infosys has booked a 40-acre plot.
Earlier this month, Wipro Ltd had obtained a clearance in-principle for setting up IT SEZs in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Pune (Maharashtra), Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Bangalore (Sarjapur Road), Bangalore Electronic City, and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh).
The company has also booked 25 acres of space in an 80-acre IT SEZ proposed to be set up by the state government of Kerala.
Given the keen interest of IT companies to locate themselves in SEZs, the information technology ministry had proposed converting all software technology parks into IT SEZs, officials said. The proposal has, however, not found favour with the commerce department, the nodal agency for SEZs.
The ministry has now proposed introducing a size limit to ensure that too many small land units do not get SEZ status.
Getting SEZ status is lucrative for companies and developers as it grants them Customs and income tax benefits besides exemptions from the minimum alternative tax and the dividend distribution tax.
The draft SEZ rules, which are expected to be finalised and notified within the next one month, have proposed a minimum area requirement of 10 hectares for IT, including software, IT-enabled services and gems and jewellery.
