Maharashtra woos foreign investors with land allocation

Maharashtra government will allocate land to foreign manufacturers who invest in the State in partnership with Indian companies. The government has identified land banks in Ozar in Nashik district, Amravati and Aurangabad have been earmarked for such joint ventures.

Technology-resource

“Some major foreign companies have approached us and are eager to invest in the Defence sector. They have the technology and we have the resources. These companies are expected to visit Maharashtra in coming days and we have even earmarked the sites we plan on offering them,” Industries Minister Subhash Desai was quoted in a PTI report.

The ventures will be formed with prominent Indian engineering companies. “There is possibility that these companies may manufacture parts of combat aircraft and parts of submarine or warships in Maharashtra,” he said.

“The manufacturing companies will need the facility of an airport strip which is available at these places and the MIDC, too, has a huge land bank of 48,000 acres,” Desai added. The minister did not give any more details.

Tax exemptions

The Maharashtra government had recently unveiled its new information technology (IT) policy providing a hike in floor space index. IT/ITES units have also been offered exemptions from stamp duty, electricity duty, property tax, octroi or LBT, VAT and works contract taxes.

“For integrated IT townships in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Mira-Bhayander, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporations and Ambernath Municipal Council limits, the permissible FSI would be 2.5. Elsewhere, the FSI will be 2 with a premium. The premium will be used for developing critical infrastructure related to IT parks,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said while announcing the policy.