With her role being crucial in deciding the country's next President, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee's wish list for her State seems to be growing.

Besides the reported demands for a bailout package for the debt-plagued State, she has now written to the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee – who is a front-runner in the race to be the President – to help revive the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)/Electronic Hardware Technology Park scheme, official sources told Business Line .

Simultaneously, she has asked the State Government officials to come out soon with a comprehensive information technology policy to support the software and hardware sectors and to take them to remote areas of the State.

This development comes even as her Government recently announced the scrapping of the West Bengal Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act as a follow-up to her party's opposition to SEZs.

One of the main factors which helped her overthrow the long-standing Communist party regime in the State was her high-profile support to the agitation by farmers in the State against acquisition of large tracts of agricultural land for industrial projects including SEZs.

Though her Government had recently refused SEZ status to Infosys, it is not against investments by IT companies in any other format including as training centres.

Incidentally, the Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar is also against SEZs.

However, unlike sector-specific and multi-sector SEZs requiring several hectares, land is not an issue for STPs, which can function out of a multi-storeyed building or two. In fact, the STPI scheme had empowered small and medium enterprises to operate without any geographical restrictions, which meant that they could even function as a virtual software development unit.

Another factor in favour of the STPI scheme is its track record of being a highly successful and popular scheme in terms of increasing exports, employment and investment for the software sector. It not only helped in the development of many software hubs in the country – notably Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai – but also catapulted India to the status of a world leader in the sector.

The STPI scheme – which is a 100 per cent Export Oriented Unit scheme with tax benefits under the Income Tax Act and with facilities such as single-window clearance – had ended in March 2011. Though many IT companies had demanded an extension of the scheme, the Government has so far not yielded to their lobbying, especially in the wake of the Direct Taxes Code proposing to shift from profit-linked to investment-linked benefits even for SEZs.

But the Government is considering Ms Banerjee's request in a positive manner, particularly in the light of the slowdown in economic growth and investments as well as due to the political undertones of the demand, the sources said.

>arun.s@thehindu.co.in

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