National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) today welcomed the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy that aims at enhancing exports and easing export procedures.
NASSCOM has been working closely with the Ministry of Commerce to identify specific requirements in the SEZ policy to make it more effective for the IT-BPM sector. Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “We are delighted that the government recognizes IT exports as a key growth driver for India‟s exports and the SEZ scheme. Removing the minimum land requirement and reducing the built up area will enable the SEZ scheme to realise its true potential”.
Large mandatory land requirements made it difficult for small companies to take advantage of the SEZ policy. Waiving away land requirement and reducing minimum built up area will now make it feasible for IT SEZs to come up in Tier II/Tier III locations. These changes are likely to make the SEZ policy more inclusive by attracting SMEs to consider their options.
In the absence of a clear exit policy, several SEZ units have found it difficult to exit their current operations and some of their facilities have been lying unused, with locked in capital and unutilized equipments. The proposal to include an exit policy is a welcome step and NASSCOM is grateful that some operational difficulties highlighted during the consultation meetings with the Ministry have been addressed. Work remains in detailing the exit process and NASSCOM will continue to interact with the Ministry to ensure that the details are simple and easy to follow.
The policy also extended the facility to work from home to STPI/EOUs etc in order to facilitate IT exports. While this will offer greater flexibility, there are difficulties in its implementation arising out of security requirements like PPVPN as per DoT guidelines. NASSCOM will work with the Government to ensure that „work-from-home‟ facility is indeed available and operationalized by companies, when needed.
Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM added, “We hope that Ministry of Finance will consider removal of Minimum Alternate Tax so that SMEs can truly benefit from this scheme”.
Policy Highlights
· IT Exports constitute a very significant part of India‟s exports and IT SEZs have a major contribution in it. Exports from IT SEZs during financial year 2012-13 have exceeded Rs. 1.40 lakh crore (approximately USD 28 billion) registering a growth of over 70% over the previous year‟s exports.
· The present requirement of 10 hectares of minimum land area has been done away with. Now there would be no minimum land requirement for setting up an IT/ITES SEZ. Only the minimum built up area criteria would be required to be met by the SEZ developers.
· The minimum built up area requirement has also been considerably relaxed with the requirement of one lakh square meters to be applicable for the 7 major cities viz: Mumbai, Delhi (NCR), Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. For the other Category B cities 50,000 square meters and for remaining cities only 25,000 square meters built up area norm will be applicable.
· The present SEZ Framework does not include an Exit Policy for the units and feedback was that this was perceived as a great disadvantage. It has now been decided to permit transfer of ownership of SEZ units, including sale
· In order to facilitate IT exports, we have extended the facility of „work from home‟ to STPI / EOUs / BTPs / EHTPs.
About NASSCOM
NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1400 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPM, e-commerce and web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM‟s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs about 3 million professionals.
NASSCOM has been working closely with the Ministry of Commerce to identify specific requirements in the SEZ policy to make it more effective for the IT-BPM sector. Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “We are delighted that the government recognizes IT exports as a key growth driver for India‟s exports and the SEZ scheme. Removing the minimum land requirement and reducing the built up area will enable the SEZ scheme to realise its true potential”.
Large mandatory land requirements made it difficult for small companies to take advantage of the SEZ policy. Waiving away land requirement and reducing minimum built up area will now make it feasible for IT SEZs to come up in Tier II/Tier III locations. These changes are likely to make the SEZ policy more inclusive by attracting SMEs to consider their options.
In the absence of a clear exit policy, several SEZ units have found it difficult to exit their current operations and some of their facilities have been lying unused, with locked in capital and unutilized equipments. The proposal to include an exit policy is a welcome step and NASSCOM is grateful that some operational difficulties highlighted during the consultation meetings with the Ministry have been addressed. Work remains in detailing the exit process and NASSCOM will continue to interact with the Ministry to ensure that the details are simple and easy to follow.
The policy also extended the facility to work from home to STPI/EOUs etc in order to facilitate IT exports. While this will offer greater flexibility, there are difficulties in its implementation arising out of security requirements like PPVPN as per DoT guidelines. NASSCOM will work with the Government to ensure that „work-from-home‟ facility is indeed available and operationalized by companies, when needed.
Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM added, “We hope that Ministry of Finance will consider removal of Minimum Alternate Tax so that SMEs can truly benefit from this scheme”.
Policy Highlights
· IT Exports constitute a very significant part of India‟s exports and IT SEZs have a major contribution in it. Exports from IT SEZs during financial year 2012-13 have exceeded Rs. 1.40 lakh crore (approximately USD 28 billion) registering a growth of over 70% over the previous year‟s exports.
· The present requirement of 10 hectares of minimum land area has been done away with. Now there would be no minimum land requirement for setting up an IT/ITES SEZ. Only the minimum built up area criteria would be required to be met by the SEZ developers.
· The minimum built up area requirement has also been considerably relaxed with the requirement of one lakh square meters to be applicable for the 7 major cities viz: Mumbai, Delhi (NCR), Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. For the other Category B cities 50,000 square meters and for remaining cities only 25,000 square meters built up area norm will be applicable.
· The present SEZ Framework does not include an Exit Policy for the units and feedback was that this was perceived as a great disadvantage. It has now been decided to permit transfer of ownership of SEZ units, including sale
· In order to facilitate IT exports, we have extended the facility of „work from home‟ to STPI / EOUs / BTPs / EHTPs.
About NASSCOM
NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industry in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1400 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM's member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPM, e-commerce and web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM‟s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs about 3 million professionals.
