Odisha to unveil new IT policy; to hike incentive for recruiting local youths
The new IT policy plans to give one-time recruitment assistance of ₹25,000 to an IT company for each employee recruited from Odisha on the condition that they remain in service for a minimum period of one year
The Odisha government is all set to unveil a new information technology (IT) policy that seeks to more than double the incentive for companies for recruiting local youths.
The policy, which would be unveiled soon by the state information technology department, plans to give one-time recruitment assistance of ₹25,000 to an IT company for each employee recruited from Odisha on the condition that they remain in service for a minimum period of one year. The maximum limit for this incentive is ₹25 lakh per unit for a period of 5 years from the date of commencement of operations.
In the IT policy of 2022, the Odisha government had announced one time incentive of ₹10,000 to IT companies for each newly recruited employee at executive level who are residents of Odisha.
As per the proposed policy, ₹1,000 would be provided for every Odisha woman, SC/ST person, or physically disabled person who is employed in such companies.
The IT companies recruiting local youths would be entitled for 100% reimbursement of the expenditure incurred towards contribution for Employees State Insurance (ESI) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) of employees.
For those companies setting up IT parks in the state, the policy proposes to give 100% exemption of stamp duty on first transaction and 50% exemption on second transaction on lease/ale agreement of land or built-up space allotted by the government. For companies investing more than ₹1,000 in IT parks, the government plans to reimburse 15% of the investment with a cap of ₹200 crore. Eligible lT units/Towers/Parks would be provided 100% exemption/reimbursement from payment of Electricity Duty for a period of 5 years from the date of commencement of commercial operations in the state. Similarly, it plans to provide 100% reimbursement on State GST to eligible lT units/Towers/Parks.
Other notable provisions of the new policy are reimbursement of 30% of the fixed capital investment for units with less than ₹100 crore investment while those between ₹100 crore and ₹200 crore would get 25% of the investment cost reimbursed. For investments above ₹250 crore, 20% of the amount would be reimbursed.
For IT Towers, a minimum of 70 % of the built-up area have to be allocated to lT/lTeS units and maximum of 30% of built-up area shall be allowed for support infrastructure services which will include public utility services, cafeteria, food zones, restaurants, recreational centres
The new IT policy coming amid the government’s push for faster growth in IT sector in the state also proposes to reward IT companies who hire 2-20 interns every year with each of them getting reimbursed 50% of the stipend paid for each intern.
The policy also proposes to give incentives for AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics) industries that includes capital subsidy, reimbursement of production costs for animation films/series/games, recruitment assistance, and marketing assistance.
Other incentives for the IT companies include exemptions from routine inspection by Labour department under Factories Act 1948, Shops & Commercial Establishments Act, Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies)Act, The Contract Labour [Regulation & Abolition] Act, Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Bonus Act, lnter State Migrant Workmen [Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service] Act, Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, Sexual Harassment of women at workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and Workmen’s compensation Act. The State government has also declared lT units as Public Utility Services under the provisions of the lndustrial Disputes Act, 1947 to exempt them from the disruption caused by general strikes and bandhs.
Though Odisha in its IT policy of 2022 aimed at ₹10,000 crore annual exports in IT sector, it managed to reach ₹7,500 crore in 2023-24, up from ₹5,207 crore in 2021-22.