Govt to provide tax incentives to high-tech manufacturing plants

The government on Friday revived its efforts to attract high-tech companies for setting up manufacturing units in India in areas like electronic chip manufacturing, laptop etc with a promise of direct and indirect tax incentives. The proposal was put forward by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20.

"Government will launch a scheme to invite global companies through transparent bidding to set up mega manufacturing plants in sunrise and advanced technology areas such as semiconductor fabrication," she said. The finance minister said the scheme will include units in the fields of solar photovoltaic cells, lithium storage batteries, solar electric charging infrastructure, computer servers, laptops, etc.

The government will "provide them investment linked income tax exemptions under 35 AD of the Income Tax Act and other indirect tax benefits." Earlier also, the government had announced schemes for setting up semiconductor plants in the country. Proposals from a consortium led by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and HSMC Technologies India were shortlisted entailing a cumulative investment of over Rs 63,000 crore.

Jaiprakash Associates withdrew its proposal, while in April 2018 the Ministry of Electronics and IT canceled the letter of intent issued to HSMC Technologies for setting up a semiconductor plant. HSMC had requested the government to assure market support through policy measures but its proposal was rejected.